Green Monastery

Deep within the fir-cloaked gorge of the Chitakhevi valley outside Borjomi, the 9th-century monastic complex of St. George—universally known as the Green Monastery—emerges organically from the wilderness. Founded by Christopher and Theodore, disciples of the influential monastic reformer St. Gregory of Khandzta, the compound exemplifies early medieval Georgian asceticism. Its primary structure is a modest, triple-nave basilica assembled from roughly dressed blocks of local ashlar tuff, whose natural pale-green coloration shifts in tone with the mountain weather. Standing beside it is a detached, two-tiered 14th-century bell tower, its open-arched upper loggia detailed with weathered stone reliefs depicting Saint George slaying the dragon. Walking the secluded path along the Chitakhevi River, travelers encounter a site shaped as much by tragedy as by devotion. In the 16th century, invading forces under the Safavid ruler Shah Tahmasp I sacked the cloister, massacring hundreds of monks. Just outside the church walls, the mountain stream washes over riverbed rocks streaked with distinct reddish mineral hues—venerated by pilgrims as the indelible bloodstains of these fallen martyrs. Inside the cool, unvarnished stone interior, visitors breathe air thick with melting beeswax and damp forest earth, watching slender shafts of alpine light illuminate faint remnants of medieval frescoes preserved upon the vaulted sanctuary walls.