Jvari Monastery

“A cross on the hill where two rivers embrace into one”

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Photo: Alexxx1979 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Scenes

The stone path running along the ridge toward Jvari Monastery — The path that climbs the ridge to the churchVyacheslav Argenberg · CC BY 4.0

Inside Jvari Monastery, a wooden cross rising toward the stone dome — A place whose name is the cross — the wooden cross beneath the domeDiego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0

Meaning

On the windy crown of the hill a red-roofed stone church stands alone, and far below two rivers of different colors meet and flow on as one.

Jvari means cross in Georgian. Tradition holds that St. Nino raised a wooden cross on this hill in the fourth century, and that the present church was built over that place around 586–605. Standing above the bend where the Aragvi and the Mtkvari meet, it is regarded as the prototype of early Georgian church architecture, a form followed across the Caucasus in the centuries after. It is part of the Historical Monuments of Mtskheta, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Voices across time

“Where, merging, the streams of Aragva and Kura roar, embracing like two sisters — there stood a monastery.”
— Lermontov, opening lines of the poem 'Mtsyri' · 1839

Roads through this light

Georgia — The Land of the Vine Cross

“The hill where Nino is said to have raised her cross, above the place two rivers embrace into one”

Field notes

Location: Mtskheta · Georgia · N41.8° · E44.7°
Best time: Early morning or dusk, when the two rivers' colors part most clearly
Getting there: By road up the hill from Mtskheta.
Etiquette: Quiet is kept inside the small church, and photography set aside during services.

Sources

· UNESCO World Heritage
· Encyclopaedia Britannica

Wikipedia

Photographs are freely licensed works from Wikimedia Commons and similar sources; the author and license appear beneath each image.