One of the significant, iconic and visited attractions of Georgia is the Church of the Holy Trinity in Gergeti near Kazbegi. Excursions to the mountain with the temple are included in many tourist programs.
Stepantsminda
To see the Holy Trinity Church, you will have to visit the regional center of Kazbegi (as it was called in Soviet times). A couple of decades ago it was renamed Stepantsminda (St. Stephen). You can visit Kazbegi and the legendary church immediately after crossing the border checkpoint “Upper Lars”. Or by going in the opposite direction from Tbilisi. It is located on the Georgian Military Road.
Attractions of Kazbegi
The main attraction of the village is the Trinity Church, where tourists from all over the world go. In the last decades of Soviet power, in 1988, a cable car was built to the church. But the villagers destroyed it as a building that desecrated the shrine. At one time, the communists banned worship in the church, but the temple has always been a tourist attraction and the road to it has never become overgrown.
There are no special attractions in the village of Stepantsminda itself, except for the museum, which contains the treasures of this region. The door to the Betlemi cave, the chain with which the monks climbed into the cave and the artifacts found in it.
Gergeti
The Church of the Holy Trinity – a shrine against the backdrop of mountains
There are many legends and myths associated with the Church of the Holy Trinity. One of them says that it was built on the site of an ancient pagan temple. Moreover, even now, supposedly, priests hide a stone idol in the form of a ram. The church was built as a repository of treasures of the Georgian Orthodox Church during the periods of invasion of infidel invaders who desecrated Christian shrines.
The temple was built from huge stone blocks that were delivered from the valley. Another legend says that there were not enough stones to complete the construction. In the evening, the upset men fell asleep to travel far away in the morning, from where the building material was delivered, but when they woke up, they saw the completed and domed temple.
Built in the 14th century, the Gergeti Church is the oldest cross-domed building in the Khevi region. The monastery complex consists of a church and a bell tower. The interior of the temple is ascetic and strict, like the character of the highlanders who guard it. There are no frescoes in the church. Only a few fragments of old images have survived, but they do not decorate, rather, they have historical value. Most of the walls do not even have plaster. Due to the narrow windows and lack of electricity, the interior of the church is dimly lit.
On the outside, the Trinity Church is modestly decorated with bas-reliefs and stone carvings.
Gergeti is a two-story church, but the second floor, where valuable artifacts are kept, is hidden from visitors and people who do not know the layout of this building.
The special honor of guarding the church treasures was given not only to the monks and the church, but also to the villagers. In the past, even during the difficult war years, the men of Khev, residents of nearby villages, were not called up to the army. Fearless warriors from the village were supposed to protect the Gergeti Church with the treasures that were entrusted to it.
If news came from the watchtower that the enemy army was huge and the forces of the local residents were insufficient to protect the church, all the treasures and artifacts were transferred to the Bethlehem Cave.
Gergeti Church – New Times
At the end of the last century, a monastery was revived in Gergeti. This temple is also one of the most significant tourist attractions. Monks ensure that pilgrims do not desecrate the shrine and clean up the temple.
The peculiarity, due to which tourists visit the Gregetti Monastery with pleasure, is the mountain landscapes of indescribable beauty. The background of the church with a bell tower are the southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus Range. And a little further rises the majestic Mount Kazbek. To see the peak of the mountain, it is advisable to visit this church on a clear day, but the weather in the mountains is changeable, so it is difficult to predict when it will be visible. There is an opinion that the mountain shows its peak only to people with a positive aura.
Legends and myths around the temple do not cease to be born in modern times.
In the 1930s, the communists, who banned worship and closed the monastery, set fire to the church along with the icons that were inside. The church burned with bright flames for three days. But neither the temple nor what was inside was damaged, only the face of St. Mary from the miraculous icon of the Gergeti Mother of God darkened with soot.
The precious image is still in the church, it is an odegetria “guide”, next to it many people felt spirituality. The icon was painted on canvas in the 17th century. Previously, Gergeti was often visited by pilgrims from the Krasnodar and Stavropol regions, as well as from other regions of the North Caucasus, to pray before this miraculous icon.
In 1989, on August 28, during the Assumption Day, believers witnessed an indescribable miracle on the territory of the Gergeti Monastery, which they called the appearance of the Virgin Mary. For 20 minutes, the image of the Holy Virgin hovered in the haze before the eyes of many tourists and villagers.
Every year, on July 16, Gergeti celebrates the holiday “Gergetoba”. This holiday is called the “Day of Spiritual Love”. On this day, all the residents of the village gather at the church, and travel agencies organize excursions. Unlike the Catholic St. Valentine’s Day, the holiday of Georgoba is dedicated to love for God, a pure, spiritual feeling. It is celebrated throughout Georgia, but it is most widely celebrated in the Trinity Church, where a festive prayer is read and a service dedicated to this day is held.
Betlemi Cave (Bethlehem Cave) is a legendary hermitage in the mountain
In one of the rocks of Mount Kazbek, there is a legendary cave-monastery Betlemi, hidden from prying eyes. In this cave, Joseph Mokhevsky discovered Abraham’s tent, which stood without pillars and ropes. This artifact was later presented as a gift to the last Georgian king Irakli II. The image of this tent is embodied in a small aluminum church, which was lifted high onto Mount Kazbek with the help of a helicopter and installed under the blessing of Patriarch Ilia II. Periodically, monks hold Divine Liturgy in this church.
The location of the Betlemi cave is known to the monks of the Gergeti Monastery and the residents of the village of Stepantsminda. There is a legend that it was possible to climb it only by a chain, but for this you need to be a person of pure spirit. Now a fragment of the chain can be seen in the village museum. Another belief says that monks who broke the vow of chastity were exiled to this cave-skete.
The existence of Betlemi has always been known, but contemporaries discovered it in 1948 of the last century. Historical artifacts that were then found in the cave are kept in the Stepantsminda Museum.
It is impossible to climb Betlemi without special mountaineering equipment, so the mass tourist knows this attraction only from the stories of guides.
The cave, like the Holy Trinity Church, is also associated with many legends.
One of them says that it was there that a hundred young mountaineers brought the treasures of Queen Tamara in saddlebags and hid them, and then killed each other so as not to reveal the secret. The treasures were never found.
Another legend is associated with the cave monastery, described in the poem “The Hermit” by Ilya Chavchavadze. The holy father who lived in the monastery read the Holy Scripture every morning, which was supported by a ray of sunlight penetrating the cell.
Once a monk sheltered a lost shepherdess, whom he later desired. In anger, he turned to God with reproach for sending him a temptress. The next day, wanting to read the Holy Scripture again, the monk, out of habit, tried to put the book on a sunbeam, but the book fell, so he realized that grace had gone.
For a long time, during the invasion of the Arabs and Persians, the original cross-staff of St. Nina the Equal to the Apostles, made from grapevine and woven with her hair, and a fragment of the Life-Giving Cross were kept in Gergeti, and later in the Betlemi cave.
Women are not allowed to enter the cave.
Climbing Mount Kazbek
The extinct volcano Kazbek (5033m) attracts inexperienced climbers, as it is not a difficult peak to climb. The ascent along an easy route takes two days. The first day ends at the weather station, where you can pitch your tent at an altitude of 3675 meters. Climbers have to overcome a difference in altitude of almost two and a half kilometers, so a stop is necessary for acclimatization and preparation of the body to the thin air.
To get to the weather station, you need to go west from the Gergeti Church, along a barely visible path, if you are lucky, you can meet people from the valley who are carrying provisions for meteorologists and continue the journey with them. The path will lead to a glacier, which can be passed without crampons. From the church to the glacier there are six kilometers.
The weather station is an oblong stone structure with permanent residents who will let you spend the night in the station building for 25 lari ($7.6), or pitch a tent on the station grounds for 10 lari ($3.8). You can set up a camp at some distance absolutely free of charge. In the evening, a generator is turned on at the station, so it becomes possible to charge mobile devices (phones, tablets, etc.).
At the weather station, you can rent out mountaineering equipment (crampons, ice axe) and sell some food, although their price is 10 times higher than in the valley.
The distance from the weather station to the summit is 1,300 meters. If you take the bypass path instead of the direct route, you can return in one day. The direct route is considered difficult and requires about 4 days of travel.
On the second day of the ascent, in the zone of eternal snow, you can find the Betlemi cave (4,100 m) described above, which is located on one of the mountaineering routes in the andesite rock, and visit the small aluminum church mentioned above. You can find out which route you need to take to pass by the cave from the weather station staff.
Arch of Friendship of Nations
If the Friendship Arch is decorated with a mosaic panel, as was customary in Soviet times, then on the Friendship of Nations monument in Moscow the words “Labor”, “Peace”, “Unity”, “Brotherhood” are intertwined with letters of the Georgian alphabet and Cyrillic.
The arch can be seen on the way from Russia to Georgia and back. National headdresses and other souvenirs are also sold there. From the observation deck you can get excellent photos of the mountains and gorges.
Information for tourists
- In Transcaucasia, it was customary to walk to any church, especially if a vow was made, some people still adhere to this rule. The serpentine road to the Church of the Holy Trinity will take 1.5-2 hours to the top. However, the modern generation, older people and tourists, prefer to go by car. Local taxi drivers come to their aid, taking tourists and pilgrims to the temple in their SUVs for about 30 lari ($11)
- There is a spring with holy water near the monastery, so when climbing the mountain, there is no point in taking a lot of water with you.
- The village of Stepantsminda is located high in the mountains, so no matter how hot it is in the flatlands of Georgia, you should stock up on warm clothes and comfortable shoes for the climb to the church.
- Khinkali! The highlanders prepare khinkali according to a special recipe, which makes them very tasty. You should definitely visit a khinkali restaurant in Stepantsminda and try this delicacy.
Excursion from Tbilisi to Kazbegi
The most popular way to get to Kazbegi is to book a tour from Tbilisi. If you are an ordinary tourist, not a climber or a pilgrim, then one day is more than enough to get acquainted with the sights. Keep in mind that you can only climb to Gergeti from mid-April to November. Even though a new asphalt road has been built to the temple since 2019, it is covered with snow in winter and no one cleans it.
Of the guides who conduct excursions in this direction, I recommend paying attention to Lidia and Armen. Their routes are more intense compared to others and include a visit to Mtskheta.
Twice a week, Lydia recruits groups along the route.: Kazbek and Mtskheta. Group excursion to places of power. This is probably the best option for budget excursions to these places.
For those who can’t get to Tbilisi on Mondays or Fridays, take Armen’s tour: Secrets of the Georgian Military Road, Kazbek and the legendary Jvari. An excellent guide and a bonus in the form of Jvari are a good reason to choose it.
How to get from Tbilisi to Kazbegi
- From Tbilisi to Kazbegi (Stepantsminda) minibuses leave from the Didube bus station. This is the cheapest way to get to the village, as the cost of the trip is only 15-20 lari ($6-8). The distance between Tbilisi and Stepantsminda is about 160 km, the travel time is almost 3 hours. You can also go from Tbilisi by taxi, the cost of the trip depends on the power of the car and the fuel it is filled with. A car on gas will take 150-200 lari ($60-80), on gasoline or diesel fuel more than 250-300 lari ($90-120). If the trip is made by a group, then the cost of the trip can be divided between the passengers.
- In the village of Stepantsminda there are hotels and many guest houses, where you can spend the night.
More about Georgia:
My name is Vitaly Kibitlevsky, I am a tour guide and creator of unique quests in Batumi. If you want to walk around the city with a fascinating storyteller or plunge into an exciting adventure, write to the mail: vitkibit@gmail.com
Find out more about me and my projects here