The Shuamta Monasteries: Ancient and Royal Churches in the Forest near Telavi

The Shuamta monasteries — two distinct religious complexes a short way apart on a wooded hillside a few kilometers from Telavi, in Kakheti, in Georgia (the country in the South Caucasus) — are immediately striking for their contrast with the open, vineyard-dominated landscape of most of Kakheti. Where the typical Kakhetian religious site sits exposed, commanding wide views over the Alazani valley, Shuamta is enclosed by trees, the forest canopy giving it a shade and shelter unlike almost any other significant religious site in the region. (The name means "between the mountains.") The two complexes belong to periods of Georgian ecclesiastical history separated by roughly a thousand years, and visiting them together — as their proximity makes natural — gives a compressed but genuine sense of how Georgian religious architecture developed from its earliest surviving forms to the mature style of the late medieval period.

What are the Shuamta monasteries?

Shuamta is a pair of Georgian Orthodox monasteries in the forested Tsiv-Gombori hills near Telavi, in the Kakheti region of eastern Georgia. Old Shuamta (Dzveli Shuamta) is an abandoned early-medieval complex of three small churches — a 5th-century basilica and two 7th-century domed churches, one strongly resembling the famous Jvari monastery at Mtskheta. New Shuamta (Akhali Shuamta), about two kilometers away, is a 16th-century complex founded by Queen Tinatin, wife of King Levan of Kakheti, and is an active nunnery. The two together — set in deep forest, free to visit, and quieter than most of the Kakheti circuit — make a rewarding short excursion from Telavi spanning a thousand years of Georgian church-building.

Old Shuamta

Old Shuamta is the earlier and architecturally more significant of the two, its churches dating from the 5th to 7th centuries — the formative period of Georgian Christian architecture, when the conventions of church building were still being worked out, and these structures are among the earliest physical evidence of organized Christian community life in the Caucasus. The complex consists of three small stone churches of different types and dates, grouped on the forested hillside in an arrangement that reflects incremental development rather than a single planned composition. The monastery was abandoned in the 16th century and is not active today.

The oldest of the three is a small three-nave basilica of the 5th century — one of the oldest Christian buildings in Georgia — built in the early basilica form (a longitudinal, hall-like plan) that preceded the centrally planned, domed churches of later centuries. The other two churches are 7th-century domed churches, and the larger of them is the architecturally important one: it is closely related in type and design to the Jvari monastery at Mtskheta — the great early-7th-century church that became a model for Georgian sacred architecture. To find a Jvari-type church here, in a quiet Kakhetian forest, is genuinely significant: it places Old Shuamta within the key architectural development of the early Georgian Christian period, the move toward the centralized, domed plan that would define Georgian church-building thereafter. All three churches are built of cobblestone (with dressed stone at the corners) and are almost entirely without carved decoration, in keeping with the austere aesthetic of the earliest period.

The buildings, worn by some fifteen centuries of exposure and largely free of the interpretive infrastructure that more-visited sites accumulate, have a quality of genuine antiquity increasingly hard to find in Georgia's religious heritage — a sense that they are simply there, as they have been for more than a millennium, rather than presented for consumption. The atmosphere is shaped as much by the forest as by the architecture: the canopy filters the light into a green-tinged shade the open hilltop sites of Kakheti never have, the sounds are of the forest rather than wind across vineyards, and the enclosure of the trees gives the complex an intimacy and a sense of protection the more exposed sites lack. It's easy to understand why early monks seeking withdrawal and contemplative quiet chose a forested hillside like this rather than the dramatic but exposed ridgetops favored for some later foundations.

New Shuamta

New Shuamta, about two kilometers from the older complex (and nearer the main road), dates to the 16th century and is bound up with Queen Tinatin of Kakheti — a princess of Guria and the wife of King Levan (reigned 1518/1520–1574), the same king whose reign produced the Gremi Archangels' Complex. By tradition Tinatin dreamed as a girl of the place where she would build a church, and recognized it years later when she traveled to Kakheti to marry Levan; the monastery she founded is formally the Khakhuli St. Mary monastery. Royal patronage gave it resources and ambition a purely monastic foundation would not have commanded, and the result is far more formally organized than the accumulated, incremental Old Shuamta — a properly planned establishment with a main cathedral, ancillary buildings, a bell tower, and an enclosing precinct wall.

The main church is a domed, cross-plan structure in the mature Georgian style of the 16th century — confident in its proportions, well built in brick and cobblestone, and decorated with carved ornament (and turquoise detailing) appropriate to a royal foundation. Tellingly, it closely resembles the Church of the Archangels at Gremi, built within about thirty years of it under the same royal house — a clear architectural family resemblance. The interior retains frescoes of the period (variable in condition, some whitewashed in the imperial era and partly recovered in 20th-century restoration), and includes portraits of the founders — King Levan, Queen Tinatin, and their son. Tinatin, who took monastic vows late in life, is buried here, along with King Levan; the church also long held the celebrated Khakhuli icon of the Virgin (the original now in the National Art Museum of Georgia in Tbilisi).

New Shuamta is an active nunnery, and the presence of the community gives it the lived character that distinguishes a working religious site from a preserved monument — ongoing care rather than periodic conservation, the small details of daily religious life visible between the main buildings, and a sense of continuity that purely historical sites can't offer. Visitors are welcome, but because the community is active, modest dress and respectful behavior are genuinely expected, and photography inside may require permission. Its forest setting is slightly more open than Old Shuamta's — the cleared, walled precinct opens the space somewhat — but the surrounding trees still give it a sheltered, sequestered quality suited to its contemplative purpose.

Visiting the two together

The two complexes are about two kilometers apart, New Shuamta close to the road and Old Shuamta tucked further into the forest, connected by a quiet wooded route — and visiting them together, whether you drive between them or walk the forest path (roughly fifteen to twenty minutes on foot), is part of what makes the experience work. The transition through the trees lets the different characters of the two sites register separately rather than blurring into one impression, and the walk itself — shaded, fairly level, giving a sense of the wooded hillside around both monasteries — is a pleasant component of the visit rather than just the link between two points.

Visiting Old Shuamta first and New Shuamta second has a natural logic — moving from the oldest and most atmospheric to the more formally complete and historically accessible — but the reverse works equally well, and ending at the intimate, ancient Old Shuamta has the advantage of closing the visit in the setting that tends to linger most in memory.

Practical information

• Location: In the Tsiv-Gombori forest, roughly 7–12 km from Telavi, Kakheti region, eastern Georgia. New Shuamta is near the main road; Old Shuamta is about 2 km further into the forest.
• Getting there: Taxi from Telavi (~15 min), private car, or organized Kakheti tour; combines naturally with Ikalto and the Tsinandali estate.
• Hours / Admission: Both free. Old Shuamta is open ruins; New Shuamta is an active nunnery, generally open daytime.
• Time needed: About 30–45 minutes for both, though the forest setting tends to encourage longer.
• Good to know: New Shuamta is an active nunnery — dress modestly (shoulders and knees covered, head covering for women), behave respectfully, and ask before photographing inside. Old Shuamta's standout is the Jvari-type 7th-century church; New Shuamta's is the royal cathedral and Queen Tinatin's tomb.