Akhali Shuamta („Restoration-rehabilitation“ Project and it`s Implementation)

Catholicon of the Khakhuli Theotokos nunnery in Akhali Shuamta is one of the distinguished buildings of the Late Middle Ages (1540s), being commissioned by Levan, King of Kakheti, or rather his ex-spouse Queen Tinatin. Artistic concept of the church, its plan layout and design of facades, all reflect complicated historic realities of the epoch and artistic tendencies widespread at that period. Catholicon of the monastic complex, a remarkable sample of its epoch, was more than once repaired and transformed during its “life history”. Especially drastic was the demolition of the ambulatory on three sides of the church in the mid-19th century. Far not easier was the period of the totalitarian regime and total atheism, when the building was used with the function absolutely inappropriate for the sacred space. 1990s marked the difficult course of renewed monastic life, during which part of the monastic buildings were renovated. In 2017, reconstruction of the catholicon started, aimed at the rebuilding of the ambulatory of this remarkable locus of the spiritual and historic memory of Georgia.
It should be noted that revival of the monastic life after the hard-Soviet atheism is the essential continuation of the historic Christian course of the country; however, it is important, how renovation and further maintenance of the cultural and spiritual heritage of our country will be carried out. Special efforts should be undertaken in future for the intense collaboration between the Church and the scholarly community, in order to avoid unqualified and incorrect attitude towards the cultural heritage, as exemplified by the rebuilding of the gallery-ambulatory of the Akhali Shuamta monastery catholicon.