Georgia - Vardzia Cave Town
- Polina Rendak
- Mar 30, 2021
- 3 min read
Ever wondered what can be an alternative design solution to modern skyscrapers? Here is an option to consider: a multi-storey cave town carved out in a mountain.
Why not?
The mountain is already in place and quite tall - you just do some interoir design, et voilà!
This cave town in the south of Georgia - a roughly four-hour drive away from Tbilisi - is one of the finest examples of this rather in fact widespread medieval architecture style around the Caucasus. Vardzia reminded me of only one similar place I visited before - cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde in the US, on the other side of the globe. Having dug a little deeper than just my life experience, I found out that there is actually a whole host of cave towns in the Caucasus, which means you almost certainly do not need to travel to another continent in order to see these impressive constructions. There are for instance a few cave towns in Russia - not yet popularised for tourism - and also in Armenia, Crimea, Turkey, and further east in places like Iran, Jordan, and even China.
Located on the bank of river Kura overseeing the river valley, the Vardzia cave town originally was an important military base protecting Georgia from Turks and Persians in the south.
There are over 15 floors and all types of rooms you can think of - dormitories, kitchens, living rooms, food storage, and of course a few caves à vin with quevris. There also was a clear water spring and a huge water reservoir as well as a sophisticated system of water pipes serving the town. Legend says, the town could accomodate as much as 20,000 inhabitants.
The Vardzia cave town was built in the late 12th century by King Tamar. While in the first few centuries of its existence the cave town was used as a castle to protect Georgian territories from invaders from the South, it has always been a monastery in the first place. In the heart of the cave town lies the Church of the Dormition.
Inside the chuch, you can find paintings depicting King Tamar - or rather... Queen Tamar. The only daughter of her king-father, she became the first and so far only independent female ruler of Georgia and held the title of king.
The monastery was inhabited by monks until it was looted and devastated by the Persians and then the Turks in the 16th century. For quite a while after that, it was uninhabited. The monks only started returning to the cave town when Georgia became part of the Russian Empire in early 1800s. The monastery was then gradually restored and Christians returned to the place. During the Soviet times the monastery again was closed and transformed into a museum. That explains why the cave town has been comparatively well preserved throughout the 20th century and up until modern days. There are a few more cave towns in the surroundings, but none of them are as well maintained and convenient for a touristic visit.
Interestingly, the Vardzia cave town was created at roughtly the same time as a few other cave towns across the world, for instance Mesa Verde dwellings that I mentioned earlier were built in the late 12th cenury too. Was that the global architectural trend of the 1180s? What did the builders of these cave towns know about the city of Petra that was supposedly already long lost by the 12th century?
A year later, I travelled to Turkey where I visited another cave town - the cave village and as many as 100 rock-cut monasteries in the Ihlara Valley in Cappadocia. In Cappadocia, you can find not only cave dwellings carved out in stone, but also cave hotels and "underground skyscrapers" like the Derinkuyu cave village that is a multi-level town carved out completely underground. This on its own is a topic of a separate post. What turned out to be truly remarkable is that one of the rock-cut churches in the Ihlara Valley seems to be directly linked to the Vardzia cave town in Georgia... Explore the link with me here.
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