Monastery · Nojikhevi, Khobi Municipality, Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti
Khobi Monastery
ხობის მონასტერი · Nojikhevi Monastery
Also known as Nojikhevi Monastery, this 13th–14th-century complex just north of the town of Khobi kept a robe venerated as the Virgin Mary's in a silver reliquary until Soviet rule, after which its relics went to the museum in Zugdidi.
Where it is
42.3358, 41.9069
Why go
What remains is the architecture and the archaeology rather than the relics. The enclosure holds the church, a bell tower, the residence of the Catholicos, a wine cellar and a surrounding wall, and the monastery was the burial place of the Dadiani princes. Built into the south chapel are marble columns and carved fragments that, according to an inscription, Vamek I Dadiani brought back from a campaign in Zichia. Excavations found the remains of an older church beside the wall and traces of a Colchian settlement of the 8th–7th centuries BC in the yard. The monastery is now a convent. It suits travellers following the history of the Dadiani through Samegrelo.
Near Khobi Monastery
Park
Zugdidi Botanical Garden
A historic garden begun in 1840 as the palace garden of the Dadiani rulers in Zugdidi, planned in the French style by a gardener from Trieste and planted with trees from Asia, the Mediterranean and the Americas.
20 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Church
Church of the Blachernae Mother of God
The cathedral church at the entrance to the Dadiani palace grounds in Zugdidi, dedicated to the Blachernae icon of the Mother of God and the focus of the city's Vlakernoba feast every July.
20 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Museum
Dadiani Palaces Historical and Architectural Museum
The former residence of the Dadiani rulers of Samegrelo in central Zugdidi: two palaces opened as a museum in 1921, with collections of Christian art, archaeology and manuscripts and a set of Napoleon memorabilia.
20 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Park
Kolkheti National Park
A coastal wetland national park on Georgia's Black Sea shore around Lake Paliastomi near Poti, protecting Colchic marsh and lowland forest on a bird migration route.
21 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
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