Gelati Monastery

Gelati Monastery was founded by King David the Builder in 1106 as a centre for both Christian culture and Neo-Platonist learning. King David invited scholars such as Iaone Petritsi and Arsen Ikaltoeli to teach here and the Gelati Academy became, according to medieval chroniclers, 'a second Jerusalem' and 'another Athos, albeit superior to it'. Many Georgian rulers were buried here, including David the Builder himself, Queen Tamar (according to her chronicler, although this is disputed) and Bagrat III of Imereti.

In 1510 the Ottoman Turks set fire to the complex, but Bagrat III subsequently restored the monastery, and it was made the seat of a bishop and the residence of the West Georgian patriarch. The monks were cast out by the communist authorities in 1922, but the churches were reconsecrated in 1988. President Saakashvili chose Gelati as the site of his inauguration in 2004.