We visited the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in the historic Capital town of Mtskheta. A church was originally built here in the 4th century, but the cathedral dates to the 7th century. I think that most of the current structure was built between 1010 and 1029. Svetitskhoveli has survived a variety of adversities including many of its priceless frescoes being lost from being whitewashed by the Russians. I would add that even today, the outside needs some work done to it. The cathedral is a cross-in-square structure which features a square center with an internal structure shaped like a cross, topped by a dome. Svetitskhoveli is considered one of the great cathedrals of the Georgian Orthodox world. The cathedral sits inside a walled complex and the wall is a very substantial wall.

One of the things that makes this such a sacred place is that Christ's robe is said to be buried here. According to a Georgian tradition, a Georgian Jew bought the robe from a Roman soldier and brought it back to Georgia. A longer story goes along with this. We very much hoped to go inside and see it all but we were turned away. We had about twenty minutes and waited patiently moving up in line. But every time a handful of people left the cathedral, the priest or person in charge let some locals in and kept us standing in line. We eventually ran out of time and had to move on.

The first photo is from outside the wall with the bell tower on the left and the church on the right. The second photo is to show how thick the wall is. I took the second photo from about half-way through the wall. You can see the crowd of people trying to get inside the cathedral.

Svetitskhoveli Cathedral is a large structure. We walked all around it and it's a striking structure. There are lots of small details to observe if you have a knowledgeable guide to point them out.

The churches and monasteries are tourist stops, and most were on the crowded side, or at least very busy. And true to any tourist places, the locals piggyback onto the tourist trade for customers. We own a farm that Vicky's family purchased in 1893 and we operate our winery out of a very old building, but nothing like the winery just opposite the entrance to the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral.

The Georgians are really into wine, like no other place that I've visited. Wine is a hot selling item in Georgia and they have expanded their markets.

Check out one of the places near the cathedral. And "Yes," of course we tried the wine ice cream! It was excellent.

They have also expanded wine beyond just grapes. At another vendor, you can buy wine from cherries, raspberries, pomegranates, and blueberries. You can see the bottles on the right side of the counter along with other types of wines.