Pitareti Monastery

Pitareti Monastery stands alone in a secluded, wooded valley of the Ktsia (Khrami) river, about 26 km south-west of Tetritskaro. Its main church, dedicated to the Mother of God, is a cross-domed building from the early 13th century, the golden age of Georgian architecture under Queen Tamar's son Giorgi IV Lasha. Its facades are covered with carved ornament, and the walls use stone of several colours. The complex also has a bell tower, a defensive wall and the burial crypt of the noble families who owned it. Inside, only fragments of the original frescoes survive.

Pitareti's isolation is part of its appeal: few visitors make it here, and the forest, river and silence feel far from the city. Getting here takes planning. There is no paved road, and the usual approaches are a rough 4x4 track from the Tetritskaro side or a hike from Tandzia village on the Bolnisi side that crosses the Khrami. The monastery is active again, and its feast day, Pitaretoba, is held every year on 4 December.

Pitareti was built in the reign of Giorgi IV Lasha; an inscription on the vestibule is read as dating it to 1213–1222. It belonged to the noble Kachibadze-Baratashvili family, who used it as their burial place, and from 1536 also to their branch, the Orbelishvili princes. A 14th-century inscription names the royal chamberlain Kavtar Kachibadze as a patron. The monastery thrived until 1752, when an attack from Dagestan forced it to close, and it stood empty until monastic life was revived in 2007.