GeorgiaOfficial tourism
Nekresi

Where monks once tread, wine still ages

Nekresi

Why go

Nekresi crowns a forested ridge above the Alazani Valley, a 4th-century monastic complex founded by St. Abibos Nekreseli, one of the thirteen Assyrian Fathers who brought Christianity to Georgia. Its weathered basilicas, bishop's palace, and rare preserved wine vaults reveal the entwined sacred and agricultural life of early Georgian Christianity. The site commands sweeping views across Kakheti's vineyard country, the same slopes that have produced wine for millennia. Unlike more visited monasteries, Nekresi rewards the climb with profound stillness and tangible layers of history—pagan temple foundations, Byzantine-era churches, and medieval defensive walls all occupying one windswept plateau.

On the ground See

  • The 4th-century triple-nave basilica, among Georgia's oldest surviving Christian structures, with its original stone altar and fragments of medieval frescoes
  • The ancient wine cellar (marani) with qvevri pits carved into bedrock, demonstrating uninterrupted viticulture from the monastery's founding to the present
  • The small ethnographic museum housed in a 19th-century bishop's residence, displaying archaeological finds from the site including Hellenistic and early Christian artifacts

Practical Know before you go

Reachable by a steep 1.5 km hiking trail from Shilda village or by arranged 4WD; spring and autumn offer clearest valley views, though summer brings shade from the surrounding forest.

Last reviewed 25 August 2026 · reviewed quarterly