David-Gareja

If you ever wanted to travel to a place where desert meets greenery, where the mountains and the soil are made out of red, yellow, and black colors, where you can relax in the beautiful valleys of Udabno village, where farm communities with traditional values meet international communities of hipsters in a small village, where you can sit on benches in the middle of the golden fields and watch sunsets together with dogs, goats, cows, and horses and let nothing else disturb your peace except, well, all of those animals, but there is no city rush, no cars, and not many people at all. Just these mesmerizing landscapes and you. All of this can be experienced in Udabno. Udabno is a small village on the road to the Davit-Gareja monastery complex. It is mostly settled by Georgians from the north-western part of the country. They are called Svanetians and were settled in Udabno due to the huge earthquake in 1987. Since then, local Kakhetians and Svanetians, in spite of their cultural differences, have lived together in peace and friendliness. This village has always been very popular due to its landscape, nature, and location. It is right on the way to one of the most famous and beautiful monastery complexes, which is called Davit-Gareja. The Davit-Gareja Monastery Complex was founded by one of the Assyrian fathers in the sixth century A.D. His name was Father David, and he founded the first monastery there. Later, his students continued his work and founded other monasteries. All of those monasteries were carved into naturally-formed caves. The monastery complex consists of hundreds of caves. It stretches 25 kilometers and consists of 14 monastic ensembles. This monastery complex was very important for most of the monarchs in the history of our country, mainly because of one reason. Because it is on a borderline, in early times it bordered the Persian Empire and Islamic countries; therefore, Georgian monarchs always prioritized it over others, and defense of it was viewed as defense of Christianity. The frescoes of the Davit-Gareja monastery are one of the greatest examples of Georgian medieval art, and they are very important for our history because they show Georgian monarchs from the early Middle Ages.

The Davit-Gareja monastery complex has always been a very important place, but today many parts of this monastery are not accessible anymore because the border of Azerbaijan falls exactly on it, and only Father David’s monastery is accessible today. Many people still visit to enjoy the nature and do activities in the village of Udabno. For example, this is a place where you can enjoy Svanetian cuisine outside Svaneti and try their famous Kubdari, which is basically a meat pie; you can go horseback riding; there are hiking trails as well; and many people visit Udabno for birdwatching. Yes, Udabno is one of the places in Georgia that is famous among birdwatchers.

Davit-Gareja monastery isn’t really easily accessible by public transport, so I would advise you to rent a car, take tour services, or try hiking, but be aware of snakes and insects. You can find our services for Davit-Gareja here.