Vardzia (Georgian: ვარძია) is a cave monastery site in southern Georgia, excavated from the slopes of the Erusheti Mountain on the left bank of the Mtkvari River, thirty kilometres from Aspindza. The main period of construction was the second half of the twelfth century. The caves stretch along the cliff for some five hundred metres and in up to nineteen tiers. The Church of the Dormition, dating to the 1180s during the golden age of Tamar and Rustaveli, has an important series of wall paintings. The site was largely abandoned after the Ottoman takeover in the sixteenth century. Now part of a state heritage reserve, the extended area of Vardzia-Khertvisi has been submitted for future inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List
Vardzia is an outstanding monument of the Georgian plastic arts of the Middle Ages. It was built for the most part between 1156 and 1205 (during the reigns of Georg III and his daughter Thamar) as a fortress and monastery for Georgia’s southwestern frontier. At the end of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th, it was rebuilt (after an earthquake) and completed. It consists of several dozen homes, religious buildings, and businesses that have been carved into a sheer cliff of tufa to form tiers of dwellings with interconnecting passageways. In the center of the monastery is the main cathedral, which is of the hall type, with a flat vault (girded by arches) and pilasters. On its walls are murals that include portraits of King Georg III and Queen Thamar done by the master Georg in the 1180’s. In a nearby square stands a bell tower constructed at the end of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th. In 1551 the monastery was destroyed by the forces of the Iranian shah Tahmasp. At the end of the 16th century it was seized by the Turks and fell into complete neglect. In 1828, Russian forces freed it, but study of it began only after the establishment of Soviet power in Georgia. In 1938 it was declared a museum and preserve.
Church of the Dormition
The Church of the Dormition was the central spiritual and monumental focus of the site. Carved similarly from the rock, its walls reinforced in stone, it measures 8.2 metres (27 ft) by 14.5 metres (48 ft), rising to a height of 9.2 metres (30 ft). Both church and narthex are painted; these paintings are of "crucial significance in the development of the Medieval Georgian mural painting". Its patron, Rati Surameli, is commemorated in a donor portrait on the north wall; the accompanying inscription reads "Mother of God, accept ... the offering of your servant Rati, eristavi of Kartli, who has zealously decorated this holy church to your glory". On the same north wall are portraits of the royal founders, Giorgi III and Tamar; she lacks the ribbon that is the attribute of a married woman and her inscription includes the formula "God grant her a long life", while that of Giorgi does not; this helps date the paintings to between Giorgi's death in 1184 and Tamar's marriage in 1186. Episodes from the life of Christ occupy the vaults and upper walls in a sequence, starting with the Annunciation, followed by the Nativity, Presentation in the Temple, Baptism, Transfiguration, Raising of Lazarus, Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, Last Supper, Washing of the Feet, Crucifixion, Harrowing of Hell, Ascension, Descent of the Holy Spirit, and Dormition (the church is sometimes known as the Church of the Assumption, which corresponds with the Orthodox Feast of the Dormition). At a lower level, more accessible as intercessors, are paintings of saints and stylites. On the rear wall of the sanctuary, behind the altar, are Twelve Church Fathers. In the narthex are scenes of the Last Judgment, Bosom of Abraham, Angels bearing a Medallion with the Cross, and three scenes from the life of Saint Stephen; other paintings were lost in the 1283 earthquake. The paintings are not frescoes, but executed in secco, and "testify to contacts with the Christian Orient and the Byzantine world, but applied using local artistic traditions".
Since 1985 the site has formed part of the Vardzia Historical–Architectural Museum-Reserve, which includes forty-six architectural sites, twelve archaeological sites, and twenty-one sites of monumental art. In 1999 Vardzia-Khertvisi was submitted for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List as a Cultural Site in accordance with criteria ii, iii, iv, v, and vi. In their evaluation, advisory body ICOMOS cited Göreme in Cappadocia as the closest comparandum amongst cave monastery sites of international significance. In 2007 Vardzia-Khertvisi was resubmitted as a mixed Cultural and Natural Site in accordance also with criterion vii. From 2012, conservation of the wall paintings in the Church of the Dormition is to be carried out by the Courtauld Institute of Art in conjunction with the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation of Georgia and Tbilisi State Academy of Arts.
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