Discover Mtskheta

In the early 4th century, a Cappadocian woman named Nino arrived in Mtskheta carrying a cross made of grapevines bound with her own hair. Within a decade, she had converted King Mirian III and Queen Nana, and in 337 AD Christianity became the state religion of Iberia—making Georgia one of the first nations to embrace the faith. The wooden cross Nino erected on a hilltop above the city became a site of miracles, drawing pilgrims from across the Caucasus.

That sacred spot is now Jvari Monastery, built between 590-605 AD and remarkably unchanged since. Its innovative tetraconch design—a domed cross with four apses—became the template for Georgian church architecture. UNESCO recognized this harmonious fusion of building and landscape in 1994, noting how the monastery ‘appears to grow from the mountain.’ Inside, beneath an octagonal dome, stands a modern wooden cross marking where Nino’s original relic once drew the faithful. The view from Jvari—the town of Mtskheta spread below where two rivers meet—remains Georgia’s most photographed panorama.