Church of the Archangels
16th-century frescoes.
Giftzwerg 88 — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Phyrexian — CC BY-SA 4.0 · G.N. — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Lidia Ilona — CC BY 2.0 · Jonathan Cardy — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Kakhi Kuloshvili — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jonathan Cardy — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada — CC BY-SA 2.0
A sixteenth-century royal citadel and church on a green hill in Kakheti, all that remains of the town of Gremi, capital of the Kingdom of Kakheti in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, about 115 kilometres east of Tbilisi. Its towers and pointed domes are visible from afar above the road. King Levan of Kakheti founded the town, which flourished as a Silk Road trading town and royal seat until the armies of the Safavid Shah Abbas I razed it in 1615; it never recovered, and the kings of Kakheti moved their capital to Telavi. The site has been on UNESCO's tentative World Heritage list since 2007. The complex consists of the Church of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, built in 1565 and painted with frescoes by 1577, a three-storey castle, a bell tower and a wine cellar, all enclosed by a wall with towers. The bell tower houses a small museum of archaeological finds and a sixteenth-century cannon, with portraits of the kings of Kakheti on its walls, and the top of the castle looks out over vineyards and mountains. Tickets are about 10 GEL per visitor guides; it opens daily except Monday from 11 am to 6 pm, per the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation. The stairs up to the castle are narrow and steep, and it is usually combined with nearby Nekresi Monastery.
16th-century frescoes.
Museum and views.
Around the hill.
Near Gremi village, Kvareli municipality, about sixty kilometres north-west of Sighnaghi
Yes; the two sit close together on the Kvareli road, and half a day covers both from Telavi or Sighnaghi.