# Udabno Monastery of Guria
- URL: https://explore-georgia.ge/en/places/udabno-guria
- Type: place to visit
- Region: Guria

The Udabno monastery, a monastic complex dedicated to St John the Baptist, lies in Chokhatauri Municipality, north of the village of Shua Ganakhleba, on the steep southern flank of the Guria range on the slope of Mount Amaghleba; "udabno" means an uninhabited, unbuilt place, and the desert life of the hermit, the solitary form of monasticism, is what here grew into a monastic rule. The chief building of the complex is a small hall church half cut into the rock: the apse and the southern side are solid rock, the builders raised only the western wall and half of the northern of well-dressed light-coloured ashlar and adorned them with relief images; above the entrance a cross is set in a semicircular ornament, stone seats run along both sides, and the altar is of stone. The church has been altered many times and its dating has never been settled: some scholars hold it by its architecture a monument of the second half of the sixth century, others assign it to the ninth or tenth. In the lower part of the slope are four more caves, artificially given the form of an apse on one side and probably used as oratories; for its rock-cut church and cells Udabno was called the Vardzia of Guria.

In the upper part of the slope, 200 metres from the cave church, a second, spacious domeless hall church of St John the Baptist was built in 1858, under Archimandrite Gabriel Tuskia, of yellowish dressed ashlar with a deep semicircular projecting apse; untouched until 1958, it was partly demolished by the local authorities on the pretext of quarrying building material, the eastern and southern walls survived, and in 2006 the surviving walls were dismantled, a new church built and a retaining wall made of the old stones. On the cultural heritage portal the complex is registered as the church of the Beheading of St John the Baptist (no. 10801), the church of his Nativity (no. 10760) and the rock-cut cells (no. 17426).

## History

The Udabno monastery is one of the oldest hermitages of Guria, though never precisely dated: by Dimitri Bakradze's account its founder was Ioseb Tuskia, abbot in the eighteenth century, but in truth it must be earlier, some scholars holding it a monument of the sixth century, though no other monument of that age survives in Guria apart from Vashnari and Petra, and dating is made harder by the reuse of old ruins as building stone in restorations. In the first half of the seventeenth century Catholicos Maksime I Machutadze issued a special charter for the monastery's protection. The monastery was a centre of Georgian culture: divine law, philosophy, languages, chant, calligraphy and painting were taught here, Bakradze saw some ten boys learning to read and write, and the abbot Ioseb Tuskia copied the Shemokmedi Gulani here. In the monastery's rich library were kept the "Udabno Mravaltavi", a manuscript of the ninth century by its palaeography, no lesser than the Sinai Mravaltavi of 864, brought in the sixteenth century by Nikoloz Jumateli after a pilgrimage to the monasteries of Klarjeti and found in 1920 by Akaki Shanidze, the Bakar Bible of 1743 in a gilded velvet binding, printed books given by the kings of Imereti and the catholicoi, and 29 charters, among them the seventeenth-century "inventory and testament of Father Ioseb of the Udabno of Guria".

From 1846 to 1921 the hermitage was led by the archimandrites Gabriel Tuskia (1846–1856, later bishop of Guria), Toma (1857–1885), Gerasime (1886–1900) and Arseni (1901–1921). When the church was demolished in 1958 the monastery's antiquities, manuscripts, books and icons, were destroyed, and only the silver-covered icon of St John the Baptist survived; in 2006 a new church was built.

## Visit info

The monastery lies in Chokhatauri Municipality, north of the village of Shua Ganakhleba, on the steep slope of Mount Amaghleba; the rock-cut church is 200 metres below the new church. The state of the road, the way up on foot and dress rules are best checked locally.

## Tips

Look for the cross in the semicircular ornament above the rock church's entrance and the stone seats, and below the four apsed caves; the stones of the 1858 church can be recognised in the retaining wall. Do not confuse it with the Udabno of David Gareja in Kakheti, a quite different monastery.

## Safety

The slope is steep and slippery after rain, so keep away from the edges by the caves; ask locally about the road in winter.

## Sources

- [Udabno Monastery of Guria — Georgian Wikipedia](https://ka.wikipedia.org/wiki/გურიის_უდაბნოს_მონასტერი)
- [Udabno monastery — georgia.travel](https://georgia.travel/udabno-monastery)
- [Udabno Monastery of Guria — Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16367754)

## This page in other languages

- [ქართული](https://explore-georgia.ge/ka/adgilebi/guriis-udabnos-monasteri)
- [Русский](https://explore-georgia.ge/ru/mesta/monastyr-udabno-v-gurii)