Shemokmedi Monastery

Shemokmedi Monastery stands on a small hill on the left bank of the Bzhuzhi river, about 7 km south-east of Ozurgeti. Founded in the 15th century as the seat of a bishop, it became the burial place of the Gurieli princes who ruled Guria. Two churches stand side by side: the three-nave Church of the Redeemer, built of stone with a white marble floor, and the small domed Church of the Transfiguration, known as the Zarzma church, built in the late 1570s for Prince Vakhtang I Gurieli.

Inside the Redeemer church, frescoes show Mamia II Gurieli and his wife Tinatin, and the tombs of Rostom Gurieli (died 1564) and Mamia III Gurieli (died 1714) survive in the complex. For centuries the monastery sheltered icons, crosses and manuscripts rescued from other Georgian churches; most of them have been in the Georgian National Museum since 1924. The hilltop gives good views over the Bzhuzhi valley, and the restored Gorisperdi church is about 1.5 km away on the opposite bank.

Shemokmedi was founded in the 15th century as a bishopric and became the main religious centre of the Principality of Guria. The Transfiguration church, built in the late 1570s, takes its name from a 9th-century icon of the Transfiguration brought here from Zarzma Monastery in Ottoman-held Samtskhe. In 1820 Russian troops stormed the monastery and pulled down its fortifications during an uprising in Guria. The bishopric was revived in 1920 and again in 1995.