Nekresi Monastery

The Nekresi monastery founded in the 6th century. Perched on one of the easternmost spurs of the Greater Caucasus crest, the monastery is part of the larger historic site of Nekresi, once a flourishing town of the Late Antiquity (around 2nd-1st centuries BC). Tradition, beginnings of monasticism at Nekresi is associated with the 6th-century monk Abibos (Abibos came from Syria with Ioane Zedazneli and worked with him for a while in Zedazeni, and later, he took over the diocese of Nekresi), known for Christian proselytizing and combating Zoroastrianism. The monastery was closed down shortly after the Imperial Russian takeover of the Georgian church in 1811. After a hiatus of nearly two centuries, the monastery became functional again in 2000. The Nekresi monastery tops a wooded hillock known as Nazvrevi Gora (literally, "a hill of former vineyards"). It is a complex of buildings, including the three-church basilica of the Dormition of the Mother of God, a mortuary chapel—both dated to the 6th century, a centrally-planned church of the Archangel Michael built in the 8th or 9th century, and a bishop's palace of the 9th century, as well as a 12th-century refectory, a 16th-century defensive tower, and remains of storehouses and other accessory structures. The complex is inscribed on the list of the Immovable Cultural Monuments of National Significance of Georgia.