Stone church
Deep in the forest.
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A small monastery in a narrow wooded gorge inside Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park, near the village of Chitakhevi, about twelve kilometres south-west of Borjomi. Officially the Church of St George, it is popularly called the Green Monastery, for the green forest around it and the greenish stone of its columns and arches. Its history is unknown, but its church, a three-aisled basilica, dates stylistically to the late ninth or tenth century, with a two-storey bell tower from the fifteenth or sixteenth century beside it and remains of monks' cells. The monastery was abandoned in the eighteenth century, when war and brigandage emptied the Borjomi valley, and was swallowed by greenery; it was uncovered in 1978, restored in 1988, and monks returned in 2003. A local tradition holds that soldiers of Shah Tahmasp I killed its monks in the 1550s, and that the stones of the nearby stream have been tinged red ever since. Entry is free and it is an active monastery, so dress modestly and keep quiet. A short dirt road leads to it from the main road, and it combines easily with Borjomi Central Park or the road to Akhaltsikhe and Vardzia.
Deep in the forest.
15th-16th century.
And its local legend.
Chitakhevi village, about twelve kilometres south-west of Borjomi
Because of the dense green forest around it and the greenish stone used for the church's columns and arches.