Monastery of Saints Peter and Paul (Region of Kvemo Kartli)
The Church of Saints Peter and Paul and the Monastery Complex (Georgian: ელიას მთის მონასტერი) – The church is built on a mountain rising like a pedestal, at an altitude of 820 meters above sea level, from where the most beautiful places of the area open up. This place has long been called Mount Elia, and here stood a temple named after Saints Peter and Paul. It was on the site of the old temple that the church of the apostles was built and a monastery founded. In the last century, the Greeks living in Bolnisi celebrated the feast of Saints Peter and Paul here. After their departure from Georgia, popular processions and religious services literally ceased. The temple turned into ruins.
The beginning of the construction of the new temple radically changed the existing reality. The local population took an active part in this divine work. The construction brought many people back to faith and renewed the spirit with which the ancestors built the shrines. The monastery complex is located on two levels and is surrounded by a double fence. The lower terrace is occupied by outbuildings and residential buildings, and the upper one has a temple and a bell tower. On the terraces, descending in tiers from the monastery complex, vineyards are laid out. Stone terraces on the mountain and grafted vines of various varieties are simply mesmerizing and every tourist will want to see this with their own eyes. These vineyards on the terraces have no analogues in the country. The monastery has its own cellar, because monastery winemaking occupies a special place in the history of Georgia.
Mount Elia (Georgian: ელიას მთა), Municipality of Bolnisi (Georgian: ბოლნისის მუნიციპალიტეტი)
