Katskhi

Katskhi is a village in Chiatura Municipality, Imereti, about six kilometres from the town of Chiatura. Its symbol is the Katskhi Pillar, a natural limestone monolith roughly 40 m high, topped by a church dedicated to Maximus the Confessor together with a crypt, three hermit cells and a wine cellar with eight qvevri. Excavation dated the complex to the 9th-10th centuries, and a 13th-century Georgian inscription shows the hermitage was still in use. In 1995 the monk Maxime Qavtaradze settled on the pillar and lived there for some twenty years; the structures were restored in 2005-2009 under a state heritage programme, and since 2012 visitors are no longer allowed to climb. The village also holds Katskhi Monastery, the domed Church of the Dormition begun around 988 and completed in 1010-1014 under King Bagrat III.