Gelat

Overview

(This picture is not Gelati, it's Tbilisi old town, viewed from the Metekhi church.)

The Gelati Monastery , once a major centre of enlightenment in Georgia for many long centuries, was a repository of many outstanding monuments of art, and still is even today.

The monastery was founded by King David the Builder in 1106. As a result of the progressive policy he pursued as well as a favourable international situation, Georgia became a powerful feudal monarchal state which subordinated neighbouring countries to its influence and sought to play a leading role among all those of the Near East.

Wishing to establish in his homeland a center of enlightenment which would be in no way inferior to any of the renowned hearts of culture in Byzantium or in cuontries of the Near East, King David the Builder founded an academy at the Gelati Monastery and invited to teach there the most outstanding Georgian theologians, philosophers and doctors of law, many of whom had previously been active at various monasteries abroad or at the Mangan Academy in Constantinople. Mosaic presenting the Virgin with Archangels (1125-1130) About 200 metres north-west of the Gelati ensemble, lie the ruins called Sokhasteri (hermits' dwelling place). The cleaning and research carried out on this spot showed that once a hospital was sited there and, according to the chronicle, David the Builder had erected it and personally supervised the care of the patients.

Portrait of King David the Builder with a model of the Cathedral in his hand (16th cent) The...more

History