Shio-Mgvime Monastery

To spend your holidays in Georgia (Europe, Caucasus) is quite interesting thing while traveling around the country you can find sign of Ancient Greeks (golden fleece) and Romans. First Christianity (since beginning of 4th century) and Iberia and old Colchis.

Shio-Mgvime charch and monastery complex is located nearby from ancient Georgian capital Mtskheta.The first monastery community at this place was founded by the 6th-century monk Shio, one of the Thirteen Assyrian Fathers who came to Georgia as Christian missionaries.

Shio-Mgvime quickly turned into the largest monastic community in Georgia and by the end of the 6th century it was populated by as many as 2,000 monks. It became a vibrant center of cultural and religious activities and remained under the personal patronage of Catholicoi of Georgia. David IV "the Builder" (1089-1125) made it a royal domain and dictated regulations (typicon) for the monastery (1123). The monastery was somewhat altered in the 11th and 18th centuries, but has largely retained its original architecture.

The earliest building – the Monastery of St. John the Baptist – a cruciform church, very plain and strict in its design, indeed dates to that time, c. 560s-580s, and the caves curved by monks are still visible around the monastery and along the road leading to the complex.

The Upper Church (zemo eklesia) named after the Theotokos is a central part of the Shio-Mgvime complex constructed at the verge of the 12th century at the behest of King David IV of Georgia. Initially a domed church, it was subsequently destroyed by a foreign invasion and restored, in 1678, as a basilica. A refectory was built between the 12th and 17th centuries and directly communicates with the Cave of St. Shio. A 12th-century small chapel adorned with medieval murals stands separately on a nearby hill.

 Shio-Mgvime quickly turned into the largest monastic community in Georgia and by the end of the 6th century it was populated by as many as 2,000 monks. It became a vibrant center of cultural and religious activities and remained under the personal patronage of Catholicoi of Georgia. David IV "the Builder" (1089-1125) made it a royal domain and dictated regulations (typicon) for the monastery (1123).

The downfall of the medieval Georgian kingdom and incessant foreign invasions resulted in the decline of the monastery. It saw a relative revival when the Georgian king George VIII (r. 1446-1465) granted Shio-Mgvime and its lands to the noble family of Zevdginidze-Amilakhvari to whom the monastery served as a familial burial ground up to the 1810s.

Here  was the first cave where St. Shio stayed for his first night when he arrived to this area.

The monastery complex is just 30 km away from Tbilisi. It takes only 30 minutes traveling time to reach this picturesque place of now day  Georgia.