Green Monastery

The Green Monastery stands in the Borjomi valley, at the foot of a gentle mountain slope in a narrow wooded gorge. The main building of the complex is a three-nave basilica, dated on grounds of style to the late ninth or the tenth century; some scholars place it in the middle of the ninth century. The church is fairly large, 14.5 metres wide and 19.2 metres long. It is built of coarsely dressed stone and rubble, while the columns, pilasters and arches are of neatly cut, green-tinged stone. The central nave is wrapped on the south and west by a continuous two-sided ambulatory; the original roof survives only over the central nave. The church is dim, lit mainly through two windows. The walls are plain inside and out, without any decoration, but in the central nave, in the apse and above all on the west wall fragments of plaster with faint traces of painting survive, dated on grounds of style to the twelfth–thirteenth century.

A few metres south-east of the church stands the two-storey bell tower, dated to the fifteenth–sixteenth century: the ground floor holds a small chapel, and the upper floor is a richly carved belfry whose arched openings rest on massive columns. Nearby are the remains of old monastic cells and outbuildings. The main church is dedicated to St George, the right aisle to St Spyridon of Trimythous and the left aisle to the holy Queen Tamar. Locals call it the Green Monastery after the green forest that surrounds it.

The history of the monastery is not fully known. Some scholars believe it was built by Christopher and Theodore, disciples of St Grigol of Khandzta. In the sixteenth century, during the invasions of Shah Tahmasp, the monastery was plundered and its monks tortured and killed; according to a local belief, the stones of the nearby stream took on a reddish hue after the massacre. In the eighteenth century, when constant warfare and brigandage emptied the Borjomi valley, the monastery was abandoned and fell slowly into ruin. In the middle of the nineteenth century the architect M. Shervinsky saw and sketched it.

In June 1911 Vasil Taganashvili, a postman from Akhaltsikhe, wrote to Ekvtime Taqaishvili that an archaeologist, brought to Borjomi on the orders of the ruler of Borjomi, Mikhail Nikolaevich, had come to the Green Monastery with guards and carried off to the Borjomi park a large stone bearing images of princes and asomtavruli inscriptions, intending to take it to Moscow. Taqaishvili wrote to Romanov and received an answer through a certain Mukhransky that he knew nothing of the matter. The inscriptions are considered lost today.

In 1978 restoration work was carried out to a project by A. Chikaidze: the church was cleared of the earth piled up in it and given back, as far as possible, its original appearance; in 1988 it was restored. From November 2003, with the blessing of Metropolitan Serafime (Jojua) of Borjomi and Bakuriani, monastic life returned, followed by a stream of pilgrims. On 7 November 2006 the church and the bell tower were given the status of Immovable Cultural Monuments of National Significance. In 2012, during clearing work, the monks found an antefix stone carved with a cross on a pedestal; on three sides of the cross runs a two-line asomtavruli inscription in mirror writing, "St George", which confirms that the church was dedicated to St George from the start.

The monastery is in the village of Chitakhevi, about 10 kilometres by road from the centre of Borjomi (about 19 minutes by car). From Borjomi take the road towards Akhaltsikhe; the last 1,200 metres from the main road to the monastery can be covered on foot or by car. This is a working monastery of monks; check service times and the dress code locally.