Alaverdi Cathedral

Alaverdi Cathedral is the most impressive church in Kakheti and one of the finest medieval buildings in Georgia. It stands in the middle of the flat Alazani plain east of Telavi, its tall drum and cone visible for miles across the valley — a deliberate statement of Christian presence in territory that was constantly under threat from the south.

The cathedral is still an active monastery, and the complex includes a fortified wall, cells for monks, and a famous winery in the basement where the monks have been producing wine in qvevri for centuries. The annual Alaverdoba festival in October draws thousands of pilgrims and is the most important religious gathering in Kakheti. Visiting outside festival season means the cathedral almost to yourself, which gives you a better chance to appreciate the scale and the quality of what survives of the interior paintings.

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A story
Alaverdi was built in the 11th century and, at 50 metres, was for centuries the tallest building in Georgia — a remarkable feat for a country with no tradition of tower-building before the influence of the Byzantine church architects who worked here. The cathedral was damaged by earthquakes and sacked by invaders multiple times over the centuries, but the basic structure has survived largely intact for nearly a thousand years. The walls preserve fragments of medieval frescoes that were painted over during the Soviet period and are only now being carefully uncovered.