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38-742: The monastery is an exemplar of the Georgian Golden Age and a gold aesthetic is employed in the paintings and buildings. It was built to celebrate the Orthodox Christian faith in Georgia; some murals found inside the Gelati Monastery church date back to the 12th century. The monastery was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994 because of its outstanding architecture and its importance as an educational and scientific center in medieval Georgia. The monastery

76-593: A transliteration system of the Georgian letters into Latin letters . The system was already in use, since 1998, on driving licenses. It is also used by BGN and PCGN since 2009, as well as in Google translate . Despite its popularity this system sometimes leads to ambiguity. The system is mostly used in social networks , forums , chat rooms, etc. The system is greatly influenced by the common QWERTY-derived Georgian keyboard layout that ties each key to each letter in

114-582: A centralized power with a strong military, with several decisive victories against the Muslims in Ganja , gates of which were captured by Demetrius and moved as a trophy to Gelati. A talented poet, Demetrius also continued his father's contributions to Georgia's religious polyphony . The most famous of his hymns is Thou Art a Vineyard , which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the patron saint of Georgia, and

152-669: A friendly state in Georgia's immediate southwestern neighborhood, as well as by the dynastic solidarity to the dispossessed Comnenoi. The country's power had grown to such extent that in the later years of Tamar's rule, the Kingdom was primarily concerned with the protection of the Georgian monastic centers in the Holy Land , eight of which were listed in Jerusalem . Saladin 's biographer Bahā' ad-Dīn ibn Šaddād reports that, after

190-472: A new era of revival. To highlight his country's higher status, he became the first Georgian king to reject the highly respected titles bestowed by the Eastern Roman Empire , Georgia’s longtime ally, indicating that Georgia would deal with its powerful friend only on a parity basis. Due to close family ties between Georgian and Byzantine royalty - Princess Martha of Georgia , aunt of David IV,

228-457: A prominent Mongol commander Chormaqan led a massive army against Georgia and its vassals, forcing Queen Rusudan to flee to the west, leaving eastern Georgia in the hands of noblemen who eventually made peace with the Mongols and agreed to pay tribute; those who resisted were subject to complete annihilation. The Mongol armies chose not to cross the natural barrier of Likhi Range in pursuit of

266-511: Is located on a hill several kilometers to the northeast of Kutaisi . It also overlooks the Tskaltsitela Gorge . It is constructed of solid stone, with full archways. The plan of the main monastery was designed in the shape of a cross, the symbol of Jesus's crucifixion and of Christianity. The monastery was designed to be visible over much of the country, with its stone walls constructed to reflect sunlight. There are archways throughout

304-456: Is still sung in Georgia's churches 900 years after its creation. Demetrius was succeeded by his son George in 1156, beginning a stage of more offensive foreign policy. The same year he ascended to the throne, George launched a successful campaign against the Seljuq sultanate of Ahlat . He freed the important Armenian town of Dvin from Turkish vassalage and was thus welcomed as a liberator in

342-532: The Fifth Crusade and concentrated on fighting the invaders, but the Mongol onslaught was too strong to overcome. Georgians suffered heavy losses in the war and the king himself was severely wounded. As a result, George became handicapped and died prematurely at the age of 31. George's sister Rusudan assumed the throne but she was too inexperienced and her country too weakened to push out the nomads. In 1236

380-662: The Gelati Monastery , a UNESCO World Heritage Site , which became an important center of scholarship in the Eastern Orthodox Christian world of that time. David also played a personal role in reviving Georgian religious hymnography, composing the Hymns of Repentance ( Georgian : გალობანი სინანულისანი , galobani sinanulisani ), a sequence of eight free-verse psalms. In this emotional repentance of his sins, David sees himself as reincarnating

418-590: The Georgian Orthodox Church and gained free passage for Georgian pilgrims to the Holy Land . The widespread use of the Jerusalem cross in Medieval Georgia - an inspiration for the modern national flag of Georgia - is thought to date to the reign of George V. The death of George V, the last of great kings of unified Georgia, precipitated an irreversible decline of the Kingdom. The following decades were marked by Black Death , which

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456-649: The Golden Age came to a gradual end due to persistent invasions of nomads , such as Mongols , as well as the spread of Black Death by these same nomadic groups. Georgia further weakened after the Fall of Constantinople , which effectively marked the end of the Eastern Roman Empire , Georgia's traditional ally. As a result of these processes, by the 15th century Georgia fractured and turned into an isolated enclave, largely cut off from Christian Europe and surrounded by hostile Islamic Turco-Iranic neighbors. For Georgia

494-585: The Lord's Sepulchre , they march into the Holy City...without paying tribute to anyone, for the Saracens dare in no wise molest them... With flourishing commercial centers now under Georgia's control, industry and commerce brought new wealth to the country and Tamar's court. Tribute extracted from the neighbors and war booty added to the royal treasury, giving rise to the saying that "the peasants were like nobles,

532-407: The 12th century until being stolen in 1859. Although returned in 1923, it was in a reduced condition. The interiors of the monastery hold mosaics in classic Byzantine style illustrating aspects of Christian belief. The largest, a 12th-century masterpiece depicting the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus, dominates the apse of the main church, and is an artwork of cultural importance in Georgia. Above

570-671: The Ayyubid conquest of Jerusalem in 1187, Tamar sent envoys to the sultan to request that the confiscated possessions of the Georgian monasteries in Jerusalem be returned. Saladin's response is not recorded, but the queen's efforts seem to have been successful. Ibn Šaddād furthermore claims that Tamar outbid the Byzantine emperor in her efforts to obtain the relics of the True Cross , offering 200,000 gold pieces to Saladin who had taken

608-519: The Biblical David , with a similar relationship to God and his people. His hymns also share the idealistic zeal of the contemporaneous European crusaders to whom David was a natural ally in his struggle against the Seljuks . The kingdom continued to flourish under Demetrius I , the son of David. Although his reign saw a disruptive family conflict related to royal succession, Georgia remained

646-548: The Georgian Queen, sparing western Georgia of the widespread rampages. Later, Rusudan attempted to gain support from Pope Gregory IX , but without any success. In 1243, Georgia was finally forced to acknowledge the Great Khan as its overlord. Perhaps no Mongol invasion devastated Georgia as much as the decades of anti-Mongol struggle that took place in the country. The first anti-Mongol uprising started in 1259 under

684-515: The Georgian court. According to Tamar's historian, the aim of the Georgian expedition to Trebizond was to punish the Byzantine emperor Alexius IV Angelus for his confiscation of a shipment of money from the Georgian queen to the monasteries of Antioch and Mount Athos . Tamar's Pontic endeavor can also be explained by her desire to take advantage of the Western European Fourth Crusade against Constantinople to set up

722-516: The Georgian state reached the zenith of power and prestige in the Middle Ages. She not only shielded much of her Empire from further Turkish onslaught but successfully pacified internal tensions, including a coup organized by her Russian husband Yury Bogolyubsky , prince of Novgorod . Additionally, she pursued policies that were considered very enlightened for her time period, such as abolishing state-sanctioned death penalty and torture. Among

760-512: The Golden Age forms an important part of its status as a once-powerful and ancient nation that maintained relations with Greece and Rome . The Golden Age began with the reign of David IV ("the builder" or "the great"), the son of George II and Queen Helena, who assumed the throne at the age of 16 in a period of Great Turkish Invasions . As he came of age under the guidance of his court minister, George of Chqondidi , David IV suppressed

798-563: The Mongols, restored the pre-1220 state borders of Georgia, and returned the Empire of Trebizond into Georgia's sphere of influence. Under him, Georgia established close international commercial ties, mainly with the Byzantine Empire - to which George V had family ties - but also with the great European maritime republics , Genoa and Venice . George V also achieved the restoration of several Georgian monasteries in Jerusalem to

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836-586: The Panther's Skin ( Vepkhistq'aosani ). Revered in Georgia as the greatest achievement of native literature, the poem celebrates the Medieval humanistic ideals of chivalry , friendship and courtly love . Around the time when Mongols invaded the Slavic northeast of Europe , the nomadic armies simultaneously pushed down south to Georgia. George IV , son of Queen Tamar, put aside his preparations in support of

874-445: The altar is situated a statue of the Virgin Mary, looking down at the baby Jesus she is holding. The monastery is still active and its churches continue to be regularly used for religious service . Under the supervision of UNESCO the site is being continually restored and protected. All the original structures of the monastery are intact and functional. The mosaics and murals were damaged prior to UNESCO conservation, but halted when

912-511: The area. George also continued the process of intermingling Georgian royalty with the highest ranks of the Eastern Roman Empire, a testament of which is the marriage of his daughter Rusudan to Manuel Komnenos , the son of Emperor Andronikos I Komnenos . The successes of her predecessors were built upon by Queen Tamar , daughter of George III, who became the first female ruler of Georgia in her own right and under whose leadership

950-456: The dissent of feudal lords and centralized the power in his hands to effectively deal with foreign threats. In 1121, he decisively defeated much larger Turkish armies during the Battle of Didgori , with fleeing Seljuq Turks being run down by pursuing Georgian cavalry for several days. A huge amount of booty and prisoners were captured by David's army, which had also secured Tbilisi and inaugurated

988-472: The late 11th to 13th centuries, during which the Kingdom of Georgia reached the peak of its power and development. In addition to military expansion, this period saw the flourishing of medieval Georgian architecture, painting and poetry, which was frequently expressed in the development of ecclesiastic art, as well as the creation of the first major works of secular literature. Lasting more than two centuries,

1026-615: The leadership of David VI and lasted for almost thirty years. The anti-Mongol strife continued without much success under Kings Demetrius the Self-Sacrificer , who was executed by the Mongols, and David VIII . Georgia finally saw a period of revival unknown since the Mongol invasions under King George V the Brilliant . A far-sighted monarch, George V managed to play on the decline of the Ilkhanate , stopped paying tribute to

1064-458: The monastery, including the bell tower. Construction began on the Gelati Monastery in 1106, under the direction of King David IV of Georgia , at which time Kutaisi was the capital of Georgia. It was constructed during the reign of the Byzantine Empire ; in this period Christianity was the ruling religion throughout the empire. The monastery's main church, known as Church of Virgin the Blessed,

1102-708: The nation's origins and instead portrayed it as a vulnerable, feminine "orient" in need of imperial protection. Romanization of Georgian Romanization of Georgian is the process of transliterating the Georgian language from the Georgian script into the Latin script . This system, adopted in February 2002 by the State Department of Geodesy and Cartography of Georgia and the Institute of Linguistics, Georgian National Academy of Sciences , establishes

1140-464: The nobles like princes, and the princes like kings." Tamar's reign also marked the continuation of artistic development in the country commenced by her predecessors. While her contemporary Georgian chronicles continued to enshrine Christian morality, the religious theme started to lose its earlier dominant position to the highly original secular literature. This trend culminated in an epic written by Georgia's national poet Rustaveli - The Knight in

1178-602: The relics as booty at the battle of Hattin  – to no avail, however. Jacques de Vitry , the Patriarch of Jerusalem at that time wrote: There is also in the East another Christian people, who are very warlike and valiant in battle, being strong in body and powerful in the countless numbers of their warriors...Being entirely surrounded by infidel nations...these men are called Georgians, because they especially revere and worship St. George...Whenever they come on pilgrimage to

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1216-462: The remarkable events of Tamar's reign was the foundation of the empire of Trebizond on the Black Sea in 1204. This state was established in the northeast of the crumbling Byzantine Empire with the help of the Georgian armies, which supported Alexios I of Trebizond and his brother, David Komnenos , both of whom were Tamar's relatives. Alexios and David were fugitive Byzantine princes raised at

1254-554: The roof of the academy building was replaced by Georgian conservators. By presidential decree, the monastery was added to the National Register of Monuments for protection and restoration in 2006. Georgian Golden Age The Georgian Golden Age ( Georgian : საქართველოს ოქროს ხანა , romanized : sakartvelos okros khana ) describes a historical period in the High Middle Ages , spanning from roughly

1292-470: The time called it "a new Hellas " and "a second Athos ". Triptychs were popular during the Byzantine Empire and important in Georgian culture. The triptychs represented another form of contribution to the church. Triptychs were a form of iconography for the congregation. One of the most valuable icons housed in the monastery was the Khakhuli triptych , which was enshrined in the Gelati Monastery from

1330-849: Was also constructed to function as an academy of science and education in Georgia: King David IV employed many Georgian scientists, theologians, and philosophers, many of whom had previously been active at various Orthodox monasteries abroad, such as the Mangana Monastery in Constantinople . Among its notable scholars were Ioane Petritsi , who translated several classics of philosophy but is best known for his commentaries on Proclus ; and Arsen Ikaltoeli , known for his Dogmatikon , or book of teachings, influenced by Aristotle . The Gelati Academy employed scribes to compile manuscript copies of important works, and people of

1368-524: Was completed in 1130 (under the reign of David IV's successor, Demetrius I of Georgia ), and was dedicated to Virgin Mary . The Monastery also acts as the burial site for King David IV, near which the Ancient Gates of Ganja , which were taken by King Demetrius I in 1138, can be found. The smaller chapels within the monastery date to the 13th century. In addition to its religious purpose, the monastery

1406-459: Was once a Byzantine Empress Consort - by the 11th century as many as 16 Georgian ruling princes and kings had held Byzantine titles, David becoming the last one to do so. David IV made particular emphasis on removing the vestiges of unwanted Eastern influences, which the Georgians considered forced, in favor of the traditional Christian and Byzantine overtones. As part of this effort, he founded

1444-545: Was spread by the nomads, as well as numerous invasions under the leadership of Tamerlane , who devastated the country's economy, population, and urban centers. After the fall of Byzantium , Georgia definitively turned into an isolated, fractured Christian enclave, a relic of the faded East Roman epoch surrounded by hostile Turco-Iranic neighbors. Georgia's decline resulted in "emasculation" of its image in Russian Imperial perceptions, which systematically overlooked

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