Troglodyte Monastery of Verangareja (David Gareja)
The monastery of Verangareja (Georg. გარეჯის ვერანგარეჯას მონასტერი) is located southeast of the David Gareja Lavra, on the plateau of the desert range. The complex is a church built of cobblestone and cave cells of monks. The cross-domed church had an entrance from the south, which was destroyed. At one time it was well plastered and painted. Next to the church is a wide chapel with flat niches built into the wall. One of them contains a fresco icon of the Mother of God of the 10th century.
Fragments of living quarters and entrance gates, near which the reservoir pit is located, have been preserved near the church. Beneath the church is a rock-cut stable and a tunnel filled with earth. Two hundred meters from the center of the monastery complex there is a three-chamber cave – a prayer niche with an altar. The monastery of Verangareja belongs to the early period of the monastic construction of the David Gareja complex and, like in the monasteries of Tsamebuli and Sabereebi, limestone buildings are not found in it.
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