Gurjaani Kvelatsminda Church
The Gurjaani Kvelatsminda Church — also known as the Church of the Dormition of the Virgin — is one of the most important monuments of Georgian architecture from the 8th–9th centuries. Located just 2 km from the town of Gurjaani in the Kakheti region, it is the only two-domed church in Georgia. The building has undergone extensive restoration and reconstruction, which, while preserving its structure, has altered some of its original details and appearance.
In 1615, during the devastating invasion of Kakheti by Shah Abbas I of Persia, many villages and monasteries were destroyed — including the Kvelatsminda Monastery. The monks were killed, and religious services ceased. Clerical life was revived about 200 years later, but the monastery was once again abandoned around 1845. Today, it functions as an active men’s monastery.
Did you know that…
1. Gurjaani Kvelatsminda is surrounded by legends. One popular story centers on a miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary once kept in the church. According to legend, when Shah Abbas's army invaded Kakheti, the abbot of the monastery had a dream in which the Virgin Mary instructed him to hide the icon inside the wall of a nearby church dedicated to Saint George. The monastery was destroyed, and the monks killed — leaving no one alive who knew where the icon had been concealed. Centuries later, another cleric reportedly had a vision in which the Virgin Mary revealed the icon’s hidden location. The icon was found and brought back to the Kvelatsminda Church. Sadly, during the 1920s, when many churches in Georgia were looted under Soviet rule, the icon disappeared once more — and to this day, its whereabouts remain unknown.
