UDZO MONASTERY OF ST. GEORGE

The Monastery of St. George is located atop Udzo Mountain, near the resort town of Kojori, about 20 km from Tbilisi. It offers breathtaking panoramic views of Tbilisi and the surrounding area. Udzo was a popular pilgrimage site. According to a local legend rooted in a folk interpretation of the mountain’s name, St. George of Udzo was believed to be the patron saint of childless couples.

The history of the monastery dates back to the thirteenth century, when a small single-nave church was built atop Udzo Mountain. The church has a simple rectangular plan without annexes. The sanctuary apse adjoins the nave on the east. The entrance is located in the southern wall. The façades are faced with large, finely dressed sandstone blocks, which have survived only partially, mainly in the lower sections of the walls. The masonry is of very high quality.

The only surviving decorative element of the original church is the rectangular frame of the sanctuary window on the eastern façade. It is adorned with an ornament formed by interlaced, grooved ribbons.

In the late eighteenth century, the church collapsed and was abandoned. It was not restored until around 1880, when the vault and the apse conch were completely rebuilt. The original and reconstructed sections are easily distinguishable in both the interior and exterior, as the restorers used brick as a building material. In 1881, the director of the Finishing School in Tbilisi donated icons and liturgical objects to the reopened church.

During the Soviet period, services at St. George’s Church of Udzo ceased once again, although residents of the surrounding villages continued to visit the site. The revival of the monastery began in 2008. In 2010, St. George’s Church was renovated, and a belfry was built beside it.

In 2015, a new church dedicated to the Annunciation was built in the monastery’s lower courtyard. It is a single-nave structure with a chapel on the south and a porch on the west. A large monastic residence, situated between the two churches, dates to the same period.