8/29: Tbilisi Day Trip: Miracles & Pagans, Uplistsikhe Cave City & Stalin Propaganda Machine!

Our last day trip with Envoy Hostel in Tbilisi, Georgia, started at Jvari Monastery, sometimes called just Jvari Church, in Mtskheta, the country's spiritual heart since Christianity was established here about 327. The UNESCO-listed church had been visible for miles around as it was situated on a hilltop. Katie, our tour guide, mentioned that St. Nino from the Cappadoccia region in Turkey had a vision believing the pagan Iverian kingdom of Mtskheta needed help and therefore traveled to this area to convert the inhabitants.

The church had spectacular views over the city of Mtskheta and the confluence of the Aragavi and Mtkvari rivers and an important cathedral Katie indicated we'd visit later in the day.

We could just see the chapel on the lower right where St. Nino had prayed to make the water drinkable for the people.

Katie pointed out the fragment of the walls around the church that had been built to camouflage its existence from the valley below from invaders intent on making the people become Muslim.

The church was built above where a wooden cross was erected after King Mirian's conversion by St. Nino in the 4th century.

The interior was bare, ancient s except for a copy of the distinctive St. Nino's cross and two other crosses in the center.

The painting depicted St. Nino and the saints spreading Christianity in Georgia. I will explain the significance of the cut tree later in the post when we visited the nearby cathedral.

Altars in Georgian churches are always on the east side and only priests and monks are allowed to cross the altar.

A Filipino couple on our tour, working as nurses in Doha, Qatar, had just gotten married just five days ago in Stepsaminda where we had begun our hike to the mountaintop Holy Trinity Monastery so I suggested this was the perfect spot for them to have their picture taken!

As we drove through Gori, the town where Stalin was born, located about 50 miles west of Tbilisi, Katie pointed out the Stalin Museum which we'd stop at later.

The barren terrain en route to the cave city of Uplistsikhe outside of Gori reminded us of the American Southwest. 

Between the 6th century BC and the 1st century AD, Uplistsikhe, which means 'prison of the Lord,' developed into one of the chief political and religious centers of eastern Georgian kingdom of Kartli. The temples were mainly dedicated to the sun goddess. After the Arabs occupied Tbilisi in 645, the cave city was the home of the Christian kings and an important trade center on the main trading route between Europe and Asia. The complex was uncovered by archaeologists beginning in 1967.

Katie mentioned that during the 12th century, Queen Tamara lived and ruled here. She was so strong people referred to her as the king! The watch tower: 

I read that archaeologists have determined that the first caves were hewn out of rock in the 10th century BC. 

Near the tower was a three-walled temple from the 10th century; the holes were ritual pits or sacrificial areas.

The cave city housed 20,000 people at its peak but its importance declined after King David the Builder retook Tbilisi in 1122 and the Mongols destroyed Uplistsikhe in 1240. What was available for tourists to explore was the 40,000 sq. meter Inner City, less than half of the original city! This was its former main street.

At the top of the hill was the large pre-Christian Temple of Makvliani, also called Blackberry Hall, one of the king's (really the Queen's!) halls where important political and personal decisions were made. 

A little further up the hill was Hall of Queen Tamar. I sat above Steven on the ancient, indented stone seat where the Queen is thought to have conducted business in front of two columns cut from the rock! 

The darkened area behind us was the bedroom and where fires were lit. The stone ceiling was carved to resemble wooden beams.

If you click on this picture to make it bigger, you'll be able to see the Queen's Throne, i.e. the seat where she and I sat!

Katie pointed out the prison cell where slaves were either thrown down or lowered down onto ropes depending on the nature of their crimes!

As we kept climbing up on the pretty steep rock face, Katie told us a funny story about the 'face' that was accidentally carved. She related how God, when he made people asked what type of nose they wanted. Russians said they wanted a small nose so they could breathe more easily in the cold climate. Georgians said their country was mountainous so they wanted their noses to resemble their country. Armenians, meanwhile, responded by asking God how much the nose would cost. When He replied nothing, they said they wanted the biggest noses! 

The views from the top were beautiful over the Mtkvari River and valley. Village ruins, destroyed in the 17th century by a fire, were visible just below us.

Near the top of the hill was the 10th century Uplistsikhe Church, built over what was likely the most important pagan temple in the cave city.

The church had a much lighter interior than the Jvari Monastery we'd visited earlier that day. It may have been stark to some but I liked its simplicity.

In an alcove off to one side of the church was the priest's bedroom and private corner. However, it, too, had darkened walls made from fires by shepherds who kept their animals there.

On the way down the hill, we stopped inside Queen Tamara's Hall. Katie indicated it had great acoustics if anyone wanted to test them out. Unfortunately, there were no takers!

The all important wine cellar, critical in Georgian culture,  was located just off the hall itself!

On the floor we could see the remainders of clay pots used to store wine. For 22 weeks, wine would be fermented with the juice then placed in different sized pots, ranging from 22 liters up to a 100 liter size. Katie emphasized that it is traditional for Georgians to make their own wine and that priests in monasteries do as well. She laughingly said only some of their wine is used for religious purposes!

In my previous post about visiting the Deserters' Market in Tbilisi, I talked about so often buying unusual spices on our travels, especially with our daughter, Natalie, in mind. I didn't buy any at the market because the jars were just too large. The small gift shop at the church sold much smaller packets they made so I bought a couple. Only later did I realize how very aromatic they are. I hope my suitcase won't smell of them and the spices won't 'contaminate' my remaining stash of granola bars, raisins, etc!

On our way out of the cave city, we left via a long tunnel that was used as an emergency escape hatch down to the Mtkvari River or for carrying water up to the cave city. Katie, pictured on the right, told me the original steps were on the left beside the new stairway.

Steven, always patiently while I was taking photos!

Just outside the tunnel were wine clay pots and a round bread oven used for making lavash, a bread we've come to enjoy eating in both Armenia and Georgia. Katie said the same type of oven is still used today.

The Caucasian Djodjo made me smile! On our way to a family's home for lunch, Steven and I remarked how glad we were there had been a breeze while we toured Uplistsikhe as otherwise it would have been unbearably hot. 

We were treated to another full meal with cheese-filled pastries, oblong meat patties, fried potato and onion wedges, the traditional tomato and cucumber salad and several other vegetable salads. Katie didn't want to eat much of a rabbit dish as she had seen the bunny running around on her previous stop at the family's home! That was the first time I've tried rabbit; in case you're interested, it tasted much like chicken but I couldn't get over I was eating what had been a cute bunny even though vegetarians would have said the same about all the chicken Steven and I like to eat. Red Georgian wine and pear-flavored 'lemonade' were our beverage choices - I put the word 'lemonade' in quotes because lemonade in this part of the world seems to mean any fruit flavored drink!

Katie, our guide, pointed out the various dishes to everyone, including the Filipino newlyweds!

For dessert, we were served these tiny, home-grown, white peaches and the most delicious plums (or were they figs?!) I have ever had. I could have eaten the entire plate of the bite-sized fruit by myself, they were that good!

I could have done without the home's outdoor privy, especially since it was the squat version, too!

On the way to the Stalin Museum in his hometown of Gori, Katie pointed to the City Hall where there had been a statue of Stalin until it was taken down in the middle of the night. It was slightly unnerving being in Gori and remembering that Russia bombed the city in 2008 over its war with South Ossetia, whose border was just a few kilometers away. Most of Gori's population fled before the town of about 60,000 fell under Russian control for ten days.

Stalin was born and went to school in Gori. The Museum of the Revolution was built in 1950, but, when Stalin died in 1957, the building was renamed in honor of the former Gori boy who became a key figure of 20th century world history.

Another for my bathroom sign 'collection' begun on our first trip in 2013 but never actually collected in one folder or post, unfortunately!

We all sat on these stone steps waiting for a good while until a museum guide was available to take us around as Katie was not permitted to. Nor was anyone allowed to just wander through the museum. If you've been reading some other posts from this trip, you know we've already gone to a good number of museums and art galleries in both Yerevan and Tbilisi. 

I haven't mentioned that, at some of them, the security guards would dictate we 'had' to follow certain proscribed routes, going from room to room and even following a specific way to walk around some of the rooms as opposed to going directly to look at certain artifacts or paintings, for instance! I think that 'trained'

us to follow the leader at the Stalin Museum as the guide brooked no nonsense whatsoever.

Before our visit I didn't know that 'Stalin' was a nickname or pseudonym and that he had given up his Georgian name, Joseph Dzhugashvili.

The first rooms detailed Stalin's life from his early years in Gori, his first revolutionary activities in Georgia, his seven jail terms under the tsarist authorities, the revolution of 1917 and Lenin's death in 1924 when Stalin was 46.

The map detailed Stalin's arrests, exiles and escapes after organizing workers in Batumi, Georgia (where I am writing this post from) and elsewhere. 

The last photo of Lenin with Stalin was taken by Lenin's sister.

In the Period of Industrialization Hall, a period that lasted from 1924-39, we were quickly shown a book Stalin wrote that was then translated into multiple languages, a letter written to the people of Georgia, and other memorabilia. Not once were we given the chance to study or look at something that may have intrigued us as the guide was always rushing us on to another room, to another display.

A painting of Stalin with Advanced Collective Farmers:

His desk:

The decree named Stalin as the Hero of Socialist Labor in 1939.

Stalin had some infirmity with his left hand so it was rarely shown in photos.

Stalin's family including both wives:

A photo of Stalin with his two children: his daughter, Svetlana, who recently died, disowned him. I gather there was a tragic story about his son, Vasily, but I didn't catch it.

Meetings with Churchill and FDR at Potsdam and Yalta, the latter in 1945:

An unretouched photo showed the effects of chicken pox he contracted at age 8. 

The guide stated that older people in the area still "loved Stalin" because everything was provided for them and they didn't need to worry about what would happen the following day or week. The current generation or 'Jeans Generation' as she called them "thought he was a bad person." In one of the few negative comments throughout the tour, she did say the churches couldn't be used for religious purposes during Stalin's time in power and were often used instead as prisons. Church domes, often constructed of metal, were stripped to make weapons. Stalin, though Georgia's native son, never played favorites with the former republic, according to the guide.

The room of gifts included this portrait from Ukraine of Stalin done in sand.

One of the more unusual gifts Stalin received from admirers was this one made of tobacco leaves made in Romania.

Stalin's first office in the Kremlin office was given to the museum in 1985.

Perhaps naively I hoped and had expected the museum would have presented a more balanced view of Stalin's career and deeds, not just a glorification of his rise to power, but an attempt to include the many ugly realities of his regime. Unless I missed something the guide said while taking photos or writing notes, there was no mention of the 20 million people that disappeared, forcing people to work in gulags during his reign and all the other atrocities associated with Joseph Stalin.

Across from the main part of the museum, under a temple-like canopy, was the tiny mud and brick house where Stalin lived for the first four years of his life. His father, a cobbler, worked in the basement and his mother was a seamstress.

To one side of the museum was Stalin's bulletproof and climate-controlled 83 ton carriage as he used to hate to fly. 

The train, which Stalin never used for meetings, still included the original furnishings. 

I figure by now Steven and I mad to have been on hundreds of tours, some led by very good guides, some poor with most falling right in the middle. Never have we experienced one like at the Stalin Museum, an automaton unable, or was it unwilling, to depart from her prepared script. Her command of English was more than adequate but her recitation of the facts in the most chilling fashion and total reluctance to answer any questions unfortunately made me feel like we had all been transported to one of the scariest times in world history. The experience visiting the museum left me chilled and I was glad to escape even though it had been a revelation seeing Stalin's home, many original documents and memorabilia.

The first version of the enormous Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, our last stop on the day tour, was built in the 3rd and 4th centuries before being destroyed by the Persians. The church is of huge importance to Georgians as it is believed Christ's robe lies beneath the central nave, under a square pillar. 

According to the story, the robe was buried after a Jew from Mtskheta, who was in Jerusalem at the time of the Crucifixion, returned with the robe. Sidonia, his sister, who had taken it from him and immediately died in 'a passion of faith, was buried with the robe. People however forgot where exactly she was buried.

When King Mirian built the first church at Mtskheta, the wooden column meant to stand in the middle couldn't be raised from the ground. After a long prayer vigil by St. Nino, the column mysteriously moved to the robe's burial site. Because the column also worked other miracles, Svetitskhoveli means 'Life Giving Column.'

I could understand why the current exquisite stone church, erected in the early years of the 11th century, is considered to be one of the most beautiful in Georgia.

Frescoes were added in the medieval ages but were painted white in the 19th century so the church looked 'clean' for Tsar Nicholas' arrival!

One alcove held the baptismal font.

The photo of King David the Builder was close to the grave of Sidonia and Jesus' robe.

How sad such timeless frescoes had been painted over to 'clean' the church.

It is considered a sign of respect to walk on the floor containing gravestones of Georgian kings.

Katie reminded us the cathedral only had one chair, for the bishop's use when he visits as everyone else is expected to stand during the long service.

The walls surrounding the cathedral indicated it had been used as a fortress in the 18th century.

Katie stated the lions on the church's facade represented the strength of the Georgian people and the grape trees were a symbol of peace.

The complex contained the residence of the Catholicos, the Georgian Orthodox Church's highest priest, when he visits.

From the Cathedral, we could see Jvari Church where we had begun our day's journey so many hours beforehand.

Before returning to Tbilisi, we wandered around Mtskheta's souvenir stands for a few minutes.

It was there I tried some of the wine ice cream I mentioned earlier courtesy of the newlyweds!

Though it had been another long day trip, we both agreed it was the only way we could have so comfortably and affordably visited the two churches, the cave city and the Stalin Museum. A bonus for us with doing day trips is the chance to meet and chat with other people. At the end of the day, we were sure happy to return to our apartment at the Bonus Hotel, though! We will be back there for one last night tomorrow.

The kitchen area; the Ritz it wasn't but the place was more than satisfactory especially after our initial accommodation in Tbilisi fell through!

Next post: Onto Kutaisi in western Georgia.

Posted on September 4th, 2018, from Batumi, Georgia.