Vachnadziani monastery, Orthodox monastery in Gurjaani Municipality, Georgia.
Vachnadziani Monastery, dedicated to All Saints, combines a three-nave basilica with a central domed structure. The main church, built of stone and brick at the turn of the 9th century, is crowned by a high dome resting on pendentives. About 50 meters west stand the ruins of a 6th–7th-century basilica, with its east wall and horseshoe-shaped apse still visible.
A three-nave basilica stood here in the 6th–7th centuries; its western part was damaged by a landslide, and fragments remain about 50 m west of the main church. At the end of the 8th or beginning of the 9th century the domed Church of All Saints was built in stone and brick. The complex belongs to Georgia's transitional period of architecture (8th–first half of the 10th century).
Carved brick layers from a monks' unit and the monastery school face the southern facade of the Church of the Mother of God. Tradition holds that the poet Chakhrukhadze, credited with the Tamariani in honour of Queen Tamar, trained there in the 19th century.
The site is accessible to visitors interested in exploring Georgian ecclesiastical architecture and remains relatively open to exploration. Wearing sturdy footwear is advisable since the terrain can be uneven and the surrounding landscape is rural.
The main church, built at the end of the 8th to the beginning of the 9th century, introduced the pendentive dome to Georgia. This technique became a starting point for classical Georgian church architecture of the 11th century. About 50 meters west, the 6th–7th-century basilica ruins preserve a horseshoe-shaped apse with a large arched window.
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