Tserakvi, Monastery in Georgia
Tserakvi is a monastery complex on the left bank of the Shulaveri River in Kvemo Kartli, about 3 km from the village of Tserakvi. Its main church, the Church of the Assumption, is a two-nave structure of cut horizontal stone blocks built in the second half of the 13th century, resting on a profiled plinth above a tall artificial substructure on its southern side. The complex also includes a bell tower, the hall-type Church of St. George from the 16th–18th centuries, a late-medieval wine cellar, and fragments of a defensive wall.
Tserakvi monastery complex took shape in the 12th–13th centuries, when the Church of the Assumption was built. In the 15th century Zaza Panaskertel-Tsitsishvili rebuilt and renovated the main church, as recorded in a stone inscription on its eastern apse. St. George's Church was added between the 16th and 18th centuries, and the complex was renovated again from 2004 to 2010. In 2006 the President of Georgia granted it the status of an immovable cultural monument of national importance.
The monastery is dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, and its main church also carries the name Anchiskhati. A 15th-century stone inscription on the eastern apse names the Great Panaskerteli, Zaza Panaskertel-Tsitsishvili, who rebuilt and renovated the church. Since 2006 the complex has been listed as an immovable cultural monument of national importance and again houses a working monastery.
The complex stands on the left bank of the Shulaveri river, about three kilometres from the village of Tserakvi in Marneuli Municipality. The main Church of the Assumption sits on a massif above a tall artificial substructure on its southern side, so approach from the south with care. The monastery is functioning again and was renovated between 2004 and 2010.
The wine cellar stands south of the main church and dates to the late Middle Ages. The Church of the Assumption carries a 15th-century wall inscription naming the Great Panaskerteli, Zaza Panaskertel-Tsitsishvili, who rebuilt and renovated it; the building was renovated again between 2004 and 2010.
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