Places to visit in Marktopi, Georgia

Introduction

Hello everyone, I hope that you are all doing just fine!

In this article I want to tell you about this interesting and well-known place in Georgia, which they call Martkopi Monastery and everyone knows it as “Ghvtaeba” and you can translate it like “a heavenly place”. People like going there because they can attend the services and they can also hang out in that beautiful nature.

What place is it?

Martkopi is a village in Eastern Georgia and there’s this Martkopi Monastery up on the hill, where the monks live and pray.

People visit Martkopi Monastery pretty often and since it has been renovated, even more people go there. It is visited by the locals and tourists too, and most of the tourists go there hiking, so you will see them with backpacks.

People usually have weddings and baptismsin the Ghvtaeba Monastery.

About Martkopi Monastery

Martkopi Monastery is a monks’ monastery and the very first building there was built in the 6th century by one of the Assyrian Fathers called Anton. Since then the monastery has been destroyed and set on fire, etc, by the enemies invading Georgia. However, the monastery has always been renovated and nowadays it’s a real pleasure to go there and visit the churches that it has.

You will find 3 main buildings in the complex, two of which are the churches and the third one is used as a shop for the candles and religious bracelets and mini frescos and crosses, etc. You will also find there something to wear on your head while entering the churches and it’s for the women, because it’s said, that it’s not good to go inside the church without something to have on your head.

How to get there

Getting there is pretty easy once you have found the right road. When going to Kakheti region from Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, there are some places, where you will see the sign saying “Martkopi”.

It’s about half an hour driveto get to Martkopi Monastery itself and you need to go there by car, because the usual transportation doesn’t go there from Tbilisi.

When you go on the Kakheti highway from Tbilisi, there’s a bridge, where the sign says “Martkopi” and you should go up on that bridge and go right, after that you just have to follow the signs. There are two ways of getting to Martkopi Monastery, one of which is the road to Martkopi and the other one is a little bit further away, which they call the “turn of Norio”. Norio is another village and through it you can get to Martkopi Monastery and now people prefer that road, because that road has been reconstructed just recently and you won’t have to drive on a bumpy road.

After that, there’s just this road going all the way up to Martkopi Monastery, which is located about 800 metres above sea level. You can just use your google maps to get to the monastery in a pretty simple way.

What to do there

People usually go to the Martkopi Monastery to see this old monastery complex, which is built in different ways and that’s because the buildings are not from the same centuries. Some of them were built back in the 11th century and some of them are from the 17-18th centuries, while some of them have just been renovated, etc. The complex is kind of large including some of the monks residencies and the bell tower looking down at them.

There’s a small tunnel built with stones on the left side of the complex, where sometimes people are scared to walk through. In fact, it’s a tunnel connecting the churches to the monks residencies and there’s a door at the end of it, where there’s a sign that says that people are not allowed to cross it. It’s rude and prohibited to enter the monks’ residence area.

Somewhere in the middle of the tunnel you will find two cave-like things on the left side, which are pretty large and you can even enter them. If you go inside, you will see the bones and skulls and it turns out that they are of the dead saints and the monks living there. Those bones are behind the transparent windows and they are lit so that you can easily see them. Above them there are the frescos of the saints. It’s a pretty strange thing, because I don’t really know why those bones are exhibited there and not buried in the ground or something like that.

There are great views of the valleys and the mountains from the monastery complex and people like taking pictures with that background.

There’s also a battling tower way up on a hill, which is seen from the monastery complex and everyone just wonders what it is. Some people who are eager to see it walk up on that hill and visit it. However, it’s kind of dangerous to climb up there. The tower was used to look to the horizons and see if the enemy was coming, so that the village will be informed about it. It’s a well-preserved tower, which is pretty unique for that matter.

While being in the monastery complex, you should drink the water from the fountains there, because it’s the water from the mountains and it’s pure, fresh and cold. People bring bottles with them to fill them with this water and take it with them.

The nature in Martkopi is amazing and one of the most popular and traditional things to do for the people is to hang out there with the families or friends. For that, there are some tables and benches built specially for picnics and gatherings situated some metres down from the monastery complex, so that when people visit it, they can enjoy their visit a little longer and have a picnic there in a kind of a comfortable way.

Schoolchildren usually go on excursions to Martkopi Monastery and then they stop at those tables and have some lunch together while the children play in the nature. You can even find some hammocks hung between the trees and you can relax there very well.

Photo gallery