St Saba's Church
A domed church on the cliff edge.
Jaba1977 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · MaxBenidze — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jaba1977 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jaba1977 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photograph: John Mawer, painter:14th century artist, Georgia — Public domain
Sapara is a working Georgian Orthodox monastery on a narrow forested mountain ledge near Ghreli village, about 11 km by road south-east of Akhaltsikhe. Its pink and yellow stone buildings include the tenth-century church of the Dormition and the domed church of St Saba, among Georgia's finest churches of its age. A monastery stood here by the tenth century. In the late thirteenth century it passed to the Jaqeli princes of Samtskhe, who made it a residence and family burial place. Prince Sargis I became a monk in old age as Saba, and his son Beka I (ruled 1285 to 1308) built the main church, dedicated to St Saba. Emptied as Ottoman rule spread around 1600, it had monks again in the nineteenth century, closed under Soviet rule and began reviving in the 1980s, before independence. St Saba's church stands on a rock platform at the cliff edge. Its fourteenth-century frescoes are well preserved: the south wall shows the saint beside the Jaqeli rulers Sargis I, Beka I, Sargis II and Kvarkvare, and the west wall's Biblical scenes include miracles and the Last Judgement. Nearby are the bell tower, small chapels and the princes' ruined palace; a short, steep forest path climbs to fortress ruins above. The 7 km access road, rebuilt in 2016, winds up through forest; with little public transport, come by car or taxi from Akhaltsikhe. Borjomi is about an hour away, 60 km by road. Pair it with Rabati Castle, 6 km north-west as the crow flies, or Vardzia, about 70 km by road via Akhaltsikhe.
A domed church on the cliff edge.
Princes of Samtskhe in 14th-century fresco.
A short, steep forest path above the monastery.
Near Ghreli village, about 11 km by road south-east of Akhaltsikhe, Samtskhe-Javakheti
Take a taxi from Akhaltsikhe and agree the round-trip fare, including waiting time, before you set off; public transport cannot be relied on. Some pilgrims and visitors walk the whole way up from Akhaltsikhe for the scenery.
When the monastery emptied around 1600, its icons were taken to safer parts of Georgia, and the main icon of St Saba ended up in the church of Chkhari village in Imereti. The Dormition church's carved green-stone chancel screen, from the eleventh century, is now in a Tbilisi art museum.