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Monastery · Rkoni, Kaspi Municipality, Shida Kartli

Rkoni Monastery

რკონის მონასტერი · Rkoni

A monastery complex of churches, towers and monks' dwellings in the upper Tedzami gorge south of Kaspi, reached over a medieval stone bridge and watched over by Rkoni Fortress on a rocky hill.

Where it is

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41.8072, 44.2244

Why go

The monastery grew in three phases, from the seventh century through the thirteenth and fourteenth to the seventeenth, and today you find churches, a refectory, towers, a bell tower and the arched stone bridge over the river known as the Tamar bridge. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries a military road linking Shida Kartli with the south ran through this valley, which is why monasteries took root here. Rkoni is the last village of the gorge, with only a handful of residents. The forested valley draws hikers and photographers, especially in autumn, and Ikvi Monastery lies about two kilometres away.

Base yourself nearby

city

Tbilisi

Georgia’s capital is a layered city of old balconies, sulfur baths, hillside neighborhoods, contemporary restaurants and centuries of history along the Mtkvari River.

Historic town

Mtskheta

Mtskheta was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Iberia and is the place where Georgia adopted Christianity in the fourth century. Today it is a small, walkable town twenty kilometres from Tbilisi holding Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, the hilltop church of Jvari, the working convent of Samtavro and the archaeological remains of the pre-Christian royal city, inscribed together on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It is simultaneously Georgia's most important pilgrimage destination and its most accessible serious historical site.

Near Rkoni Monastery