Gergeti Trinity Church
— the small church that holds the mountain in view.
Not only on a wall.
“A small fourteenth-century stone church on a hill above the village of Stepantsminda, in the high Caucasus of northern Georgia. Behind it, the snow-covered cone of Mount Kazbek rises to over five thousand metres and stays in view for most of the year. The path up from the village climbs through birch and switchbacks; in summer, a rough road serves four-wheel-drive vans. Services still take place in the church on the major feast days of the Georgian Orthodox calendar.
Gergeti Trinity Church, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Gergeti Trinity Church, known in Georgian as Tsminda Sameba, sits at about 2,170 metres on a steep grassy hill above the village of Stepantsminda in the Kazbegi district of Mtskheta-Mtianeti. The Georgian Military Highway, the historic route across the Greater Caucasus to Russia, runs through the valley below. The church faces north toward Mount Kazbek, a 5,033-metre stratovolcano that anchors the local skyline. Stepantsminda lies roughly 160 kilometres north of Tbilisi and serves as the base for almost every visit to the church and the surrounding range.
The church was built in the fourteenth century, with a separate bell tower of similar date standing a short distance from the nave. Both structures are of local stone, set on the exposed hilltop without surrounding walls or trees to break the wind. The plan is a single-nave cross-cupola form characteristic of medieval Georgian church architecture, with a tall conical drum carrying the dome. During periods of invasion the church served as a refuge for treasures and relics carried up from Mtskheta, the historical seat of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
From Stepantsminda the church is reached on foot in about two hours, climbing roughly 500 metres through grazing meadow and birch. In summer, local drivers run four-wheel-drive vans up a rough track in twenty minutes. Winter access is slower and weather-dependent. The church remains an active parish of the Georgian Orthodox Church, and visitors are asked to dress modestly and to refrain from photography during services. Late spring through early autumn keeps the road open and the meadow green; Kazbek often shows itself most clearly early in the morning.