Ancient sights of Georgia church in Skhalt 13th century. The Shalt monastery in Adjara.

Territory of Adjara it was raided by unfriendly neighbors quite often. The church in Skhalt can be considered unique for the reason that it is the only religious building that managed to survive the raids and the time of the Ottomans, as well as the Soviet period and reopen its doors to parishioners in 1990.

The monastery in Skhalt is a building in the Byzantine style - the time of construction, about the middle of the 13th century. Here, as in the case of the fortress of Hihani, there are discrepancies regarding the initiators of the construction. According to the documentary version, the Shalt church was built by order of the Princes Abuseridze.

The legendary version attributes the initiative of building the building to Queen Tamara. Whatever it may be, the church has a rich history, and at the moment it is the residence of the Georgian Orthodox bishop of Shalt. It should be noted that, upon acquaintance with her, the church can cause a twofold impression. Inside it looks big and spacious.

At the same time, when viewed from the outside, it may seem neat and small. Perhaps such impressions are due to the fact that the building of the Shalt monastery is located in a mountainous area. Whatever it was, the church in Skhalt relatively successfully survived the time of the Ottoman conquests in the 16th century - it was simply "forgotten" and it turned out to be abandoned. In 1874, it was accidentally discovered by Georgy Kazbegi, who was with a reconnaissance mission in Georgia.

Thus, the church was remembered again, and now in 1878, after Adjara became part of the Russian Empire, the Georgian historian Dmitry Bakradze and the archaeologist-ethnographer Countia Praskovya Uvarova visited the church in Skhalt.

According to the first legend, which refers to the period of the monastery's construction, a very competent mathematician, a master of his craft, was in charge of the construction. Before the start of construction, he calculated everything up to, one might say, a brick. The necessary amount of stones was harvested, cut and delivered to a high mountain. However, at the end of the construction, it turned out that one or more stones were missing.

This fact hurt the self-esteem of the master, and he preferred death to shame. The second legend is connected with Queen Tamara and underground ways, one of which allegedly connected the church and the Khikhan fortress. During the siege of the fortress, Queen Tamara went underground to pray in the church.