An ancient monastery located some 7-8 km away from the village of Kalauri (or Vachnadziani) on the woody slopes, should once have been an important centre of spiritual life. This conclusion is supported by a large number of buildings, currently in ruins (a refectory, eastern part of a large tree-nave basilica, etc), however, all known sources and manuscripts say nothing in their regard.
A domed church known as “Vachnadziani Kvelatsminda (All Saints)” is the most outstanding construction of the monastery complex. This church dated back to IX c is one of the most brilliant representatives of so called “Transitional Period” in the history of Georgian architecture, with compositional elements as distinct and singular, that neither direct predecessors nor descendants of the church can be found throughout the country.
The construction has got thc cuppel-halle layout, with most of its space enveloped by an elongated nave with a dome in its centre rested upon the protuberances of longitudinal walls. This main part of the construction is encircled with the ambulatory that has got a gallery. Tri-conch type pastophoriums are arranged at eastern endings of the gallery, so that this building can be considered as a transformed and revised type of three-nave basilica.
The church has got very impressive interior where proportions and distribution of light emphasizing both its oblong shape and sublimity, creating the impression of the utmost charge and energy. Due to creative use of the mix of simplest construction material – rubble stone, porous gallstone and brick the architect builds the body of the structure and sharply and exactly highlights all of the forms (corners, vaults, arches etc.), so that even its purely technical elements have gained esthetic value.
The church is relatively well preserved – only some sections of roofing construction are missing coupled with western section of the ambulatory, almost totally reconstructed in XV c. Facing of the dome barrel is of the same period as well as the wall painting in the interior, that is currently diminished to the negligible state.