Monastery · Kvareli Municipality, Kakheti
Nekresi Monastery
ნეკრესის მონასტერი
A monastery complex among woods at about 480 metres on the northern slope of the Gombori Ridge near Shilda, with churches built between the fourth and the eighteenth centuries.
Where it is
41.9722, 45.7677
Why go
The complex is a record of building over more than a millennium. A small church from the second half of the fourth century stands near the sixth- to seventh-century basilica of the Nativity of the Virgin, which keeps sixteenth-century frescoes including the Virgin and Christ in the apse. The Church of the Archangels is eighth- to ninth-century, and St George was added in the seventeenth or eighteenth. Around them are the bishop's palace, a refectory, monks' cells and a sixteenth-century wine cellar with a four-storey defensive tower. Nekresi is tied to Abibos, one of the thirteen Assyrian Fathers, who settled here in the sixth century. Pair it with the Dolochopi basilica, 3.5 km away on the edge of Kvareli.
Base yourself nearby
Town and Wine Region Base
Kvareli
Kvareli is a small wine town at the foot of the Greater Caucasus in northern Kakheti, known for the Kindzmarauli wine microzone, Saperavi vineyards, Ilia Chavchavadze heritage, mountain-framed lakes, wine cellars and easy access to Nekresi and Gremi.
City
Telavi
Telavi is the historic and administrative heart of Kakheti, combining Georgia's best-preserved royal palace, a centuries-old regional market, traditional wine culture, views across the Alazani Valley and easy access to some of eastern Georgia's most important monasteries, wineries and villages.
Near Nekresi Monastery
Archaeological site
Dolochopi Basilica
The excavated ruins of a fifth-century three-nave basilica on the north-western edge of Kvareli, beside the Duruji River, measuring about 36 by 18 metres.
4 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Historic site
Batonistsikhe
The walled residence of the Kakhetian kings in Telavi, with a royal palace, court churches and a royal bath enclosed by a five-metre battlemented wall.
25 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Monastery
Ikalto Monastery
A monastery in Ikalto, a short drive from Telavi, founded in the sixth century by Zenon, one of the Syrian fathers, and home to a medieval academy until Shah Abbas I's army burned it in 1616.
32 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Mountain
Abano Pass
The high road pass that is the only road into Tusheti, crossed on the mountain drive from Pshaveli to Omalo and open only between late spring and autumn.
40 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ