# Khobi Monastery
- URL: https://explore-georgia.ge/en/places/khobi-monastery
- Type: place to visit
- Region: Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti
- Coordinates: 42.335833, 41.906944

The Khobi Monastery, officially the Nojikhevi convent of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, stands in the village of Nojikhevi in Khobi Municipality, on the left bank of the Khobistskali, 4 kilometres from the town of Khobi and about 19 from Senaki. It is an architectural complex: the church, a bell tower of the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries, the ruins of a seventeenth-century episcopal palace and the remains of a circuit wall, restored in a state project in 2016. The church is a domeless hall church with cross vaults; the north-western and south-western corners held separate chapels (eukterions) that were later joined to the central bay, an open gallery runs the full length of the west and south façades and ends in a closed chapel at the eastern end of the south façade. The façades are decorated with carved stone.

The interior is painted with frescoes of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, influenced by late Byzantine Palaeologan art, and of the seventeenth; beside the religious scenes members of the Dadiani family are portrayed with Georgian inscriptions: Shergil Dadiani, his wife Nateli and the boy Tsotne; on the north wall the donor Giorgi II Dadiani holding the plan of the church; and on the north pier Bishop Ilarion of Khobi with raised hands. An asomtavruli inscription on the south chapel relates that Vameq I Dadiani (died 1396) brought marble columns, capitals and fragments of an ambo from his victorious campaign against Zichia; these pieces, some of them Byzantine work of the fifth century, face the walls of the chapel. Until the Soviet period the monastery kept the robe of the Mother of God, the thigh bone of St George, relics of John the Baptist, the arm of St Marina, the hand of St Kvirike, the abbatial cross of David the Builder, the pectoral cross of Queen Tamar, an icon of her mother Queen Burdukhan and an icon divided into 52 cells holding relics of saints; today the robe and several of the relics are in the Dadiani Palaces Museum in Zugdidi.

## History

Khobi, in its old form Khopi, and its abbot Egnate are first mentioned in a commemoration from the Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem dated between 1212 and 1222, which names members of the family of Tsotne Dadiani; the exact date of the church is unknown, but the art historian Vakhtang Beridze's dating to the second half of the thirteenth century has gained acceptance. Georgian tradition links the building with the names of King Gubaz, David the Builder, Queen Tamar and Tsotne Dadiani. Khobi was the family abbey and burial ground of the Dadiani, and Giorgi II Dadiani probably founded the episcopal see here; in the Middle Ages it was also a residence of the Catholicos of western Georgia. The bishopric owned great estates, wine cellars, forests and fishing waters and took tolls from several harbours of Odishi. Visitors of the seventeenth century, among them Arcangelo Lamberti, wrote that at Khobi the shirt of the Mother of God was shown, venerated greatly by the local people; from here Levan Dadiani moved the robe to the palace at Zugdidi.

The line of the hierarchs of Khobi runs from Egnate (1212–1222) and the fourteenth-century Bishop Ilarion to Nikoloz Cholokashvili (bishop 1640–1657), Grigol Dadiani (abbot 1871–1879) and Aleksi Mirtskhulava (1928–1962). Akaki Tsereteli dedicated his poem "Natela" to the Khobi monastery. In the Soviet period the monastery was closed; worship was later restored, and today it is a convent. On 7 November 2006 the church was listed as an immovable cultural monument of national significance; in 2016 the circuit wall was restored in a state project.

## Visit info

The monastery lies about 4 kilometres north of Khobi in the village of Nojikhevi, on the left bank of the Khobistskali. It is a working convent; check opening times and access to the frescoed interior and Vameq's chapel locally.

## Tips

Look in the south chapel for the fifth-century marble capitals and pieces of the ambo, the booty from Zichia that is Khobi's most unusual feature; among the Dadiani frescoes is a portrait of the young Tsotne Dadiani. A torch helps with the frescoes. Khobi fits into one day with the Dadiani Palace and Nokalakevi.

## Safety

This is a working convent: dress modestly, do not touch the frescoes, and ask before taking photographs inside. Do not climb on the ruins of the episcopal palace.

## Sources

- [Khobi Monastery — Georgian Wikipedia](https://ka.wikipedia.org/wiki/ხობის_მონასტერი)
- [Khobi Monastery — English Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khobi_Monastery)
- [Khobi Monastery — Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q12871470)

## This page in other languages

- [ქართული](https://explore-georgia.ge/ka/adgilebi/khobis-monasteri)
- [Русский](https://explore-georgia.ge/ru/mesta/khobskii-monastyr)