Akhali Shuamta

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Religious Sights

General info

Three km. before Dzveli Shuamta is Akhali Shuamta. More than 1000 years separate the two monasteries. Akhali Shuamta possesses a large central­cupola cathedral and belltower, both commissioned by King Levan I (1520-1574) and his wife Tinatin in the second quarter of the 16th century. An interesting legend is attached to its founding. When Levan was King of Kakheti he married Tinatin, the daughter of Mamia Gurieli, the ruler of Guria. As a child Tinatin had a dream that she was traveling to her wedding. While resting, she saw a white dogwood tree. A clergyman told her to build the Church of the Birth of the Virgin there. Later, when she went to Kakheti as Levan’s bride, she saw a white dogwood near Shuamta that resembled the one in her dream. Soon there after she began to build the Akhali Shuamta there. The monastery is once more functioning as a working monastic community.

 The church of the Nativity of Theotokos

Built of brick and covered in the 19th century with stucco, this church, with its elongated east-west axis, conforms to the plan of the cruciform, central cupola-style cathedral. The cupola is tall and well-proportioned, and supported by two free­standing pillars in the west. The interior is well illuminated by eight long, narrow windows piercing the cupola’s drum. Additional light enters through the three entrances, a high window on each wall, and two extra windows in the north and south. This is a boon to the traveler as some of the frescoes arc well-preserved and of great artistic and historical merit. They were commissioned by Queen Tinatin, who allowed herself to be immortalized by a portrait of her with her husband Levan and her son Alexander on the southern portion of the west wall. Other frescoes that remain arc the large Ascension on the west wall, and the Mourning at the Grave and Washing of the Feet on the north wall.

 The height and elongated dimensions of this church are uncharacteristic of the period and the soaring movement more Gothic in style. This association is reinforced by the division of the interior space into narrow lengths that lead one toward the space to be found in the lofty caverns of the extremely tall cupola.

 Tinatin and Levan had two sons: Alexander and Vakhtang. Apparently, Levan was not the faithful husband we all might have wished, prompting Tinatin to move into the belltower to the southeast of the church and retire from the world. She asked her sons not to bury her with Levan but in the Church of the Nativity of Theotokos in Shuamta, which is where she lies to this day in a tomb to the north of the altar.

The Belltower

Built at the same time as the church, the square belltower has four stories. The first floor features a large reception hall with a decorated dome. The second floor is cozier, with a narrower central section and wide niches in the wall. The third floor consists of small rooms that lead onto the balconies on three sides. An internal staircase goes from here to the six-faceted, dome-covered belfry. Special permission, difficult to come by, is needed to go inside the lower.

Akhali Shuamta served an important political purpose. In 1604, it was chosen as the site where King Aleksandre II of Kakheti met with the delegation sent by Tsar Boris Godunov to discuss providing Russian aid to their fellow Christians struggling against the Moslem threat.

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