# Katskhi Pillar - URL: https://explore-georgia.ge/en/places/katskhi-pillar - Type: place to visit - Region: Imereti - Coordinates: 42.287647, 43.215689 The Katskhi Pillar is a column-like limestone monolith, an erosional "witness" rock, in the village of Katskhi in Chiatura Municipality, on the watershed of the Katskhura, a right tributary of the Kvirila, and the Ghvitori, near the town of Chiatura; the pillar is 40 metres high and its top surface about 150 square metres. To the locals it was the "Pillar of Life" and a symbol of the True Cross, and legends grew around it, one holding that its top was joined by an iron chain to the dome of the Katskhi church 1.5 kilometres away. On the top today stands the hall church of Maximus the Confessor, 4.5 by 3.5 metres, rebuilt in stone on the medieval ruin; beneath and south of it a rectangular crypt of 2 by 1 metres that served as a burial vault, three cells, a wine cellar whose excavation revealed eight large kvevri, and a curtain wall; on the vertical face of the rock, some 10 metres below the top, is a rectangular cellar grotto with an entrance and two skylights, and at the very base a cross in relief with parallels among the early medieval crosses of Bolnisi. At the foot stand the new church of Simeon Stylites and the remains of an old wall and belfry. Scholars connect the chapels on the pillar with stylitism, the ascetic practice widespread in sixth-century Syria, with which Christian Georgia kept close ties; by one view the pillar was first the refuge of Monophysite hermits, though that opinion is not generally shared. In 1944 Vakhtang Tsintsadze dated the architecture on the pillar to the fifth and sixth centuries, but after the excavations of 2006 Giorgi Gagoshidze, an art historian of the National Museum, assigned it to the ninth and tenth, defining the complex as a monastery church with hermits' cells; the discovery of the wine cellar also shook the picture of extreme asceticism on the pillar. In 2007 a limestone plate of 41 by 21 centimetres was found in the ruins, bearing a ten-line inscription in asomtavruli palaeographically of the thirteenth century that names a "most sinful Giorgi" who built "three cells" for those settled on the "Pillar of Life", showing that the hermitage still existed in the thirteenth century. ## History Religious life on the pillar seems to have run from the ninth or tenth century into the thirteenth; when it ceased no one knows exactly, but in the eighteenth century Prince Vakhushti wrote: "there is a rock within the ravine standing like a pillar, considerably high; there is a small church on the top of the rock, but nobody is able to ascend it, nor know they how to do that". No monks lived here then, and no other written record of an ascent survives. In July 1944 a group led by the mountaineer Alexander Japaridze and the writer Levan Gotua made the first documented ascent, and the group's architect, Vakhtang Tsintsadze, described in his paper of 1946 the ruins found on top as two churches, one built dry of roughly worked stone with an apse cut into the rock, the other of well-dressed ashlar with a crypt, and linked them to the stylite practice. From 1999 the pillar became the subject of systematic research, in 2006 archaeological digs refined the date to the ninth and tenth centuries, and in 2007 the thirteenth-century inscription was found. Religious life revived in 1995 with the arrival of the monk Maxime Kavtaradze, a native of Chiatura, who lived on the top of the pillar for 20 years, coming down only twice a week; in 2005–2009 the chapel and cells on the pillar were restored with the help of the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation and the villagers, and the church of Simeon Stylites was built at the base. An iron ladder runs up the pillar, by which men used to climb with the monk's blessing, but since 2012, for safety, the ascent is closed to everyone; a documentary film on the project was completed in 2013. On 7 November 2006 the pillar was granted the category of an immovable cultural monument of national significance. ## Visit info The pillar is in the village of Katskhi, 5 kilometres from Chiatura, about an hour and a half by car from Kutaisi by the Zestaponi and Chiatura road and a short taxi ride from Chiatura; parking is at the base. At the foot stand the newly built church of Simeon Stylites and the ruins of an old wall and belfry; the yard is open by day and free. For safety reasons, since 2012 visitors have no longer been allowed to climb the pillar. The Chiatura cable cars and the Mghvimevi monastery fit into the same day. ## Tips The pillar looks finest in evening light from the valley road; with a telephoto lens the church of Maximus the Confessor on top and the iron ladder can be made out. At the base the monks sometimes talk with pilgrims, so ask politely. By legend the top of the pillar was linked by an iron chain to the Katskhi church 1.5 kilometres away; the church stands in the village and is worth the visit. ## Safety Climbing the pillar is forbidden and the iron ladder is dangerous, so do not try; the rocks at the base are loose and stones fall from above. This is a working hermitage, so dress rules are observed and the monks are not photographed without permission. ## Sources - [Katskhi Pillar — Georgian Wikipedia](https://ka.wikipedia.org/wiki/კაცხის_სვეტი) - [Katskhi Pillar — English Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katskhi_Pillar) - [Katskhi Pillar — Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2344182) ## This page in other languages - [ქართული](https://explore-georgia.ge/ka/adgilebi/katskhis-sveti) - [Русский](https://explore-georgia.ge/ru/mesta/kackhiiskii-stolp)