Get thee to a nunnery: the beautiful Bodbe nunnery

In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet (Act 3, Scene 1), Hamlet says to Ophelia: Get thee to a nunnery. He should have been referring to the beautiful Bodbe nunnery.

The Monastery of St. Nino at Bodbe, a small town in eastern Georgia, in the wine region of Kakheti is a well-known monastery. It is a 9th century Georgian Orthodox monastic complex and the administrative centre of the Bishops of Bodbe. Originally it was named after St. Nino, the 4th century female apostle (338-340).

The Bodbe monastery is about two kilometres from the picturesque town of Sighnagi. It is a major pilgrimage site and functions today as a nunnery – a convent.

It began as a small medieval monastery where Nino was buried. The church was built between the 9th and 11th centuries; a small church with an apse built over St. Nino’s grave that is now integrated into a larger basilica. In 1615 it was heavily destroyed but restored. It was repaired again in 1823 and adorned with murals. A separate belltower was built next to the church between 1862 and 1885. It was also in the 1860s when the chanting school was established. From 1889 Bodbe opened the nunnery and also a school for needlework.

In 1994 the Soviet government closed the monastery and converted it into a hospital. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Bodbe monastery resumed as a nunnery in 1991. Further restorations were conducted in 2003, and from 2010 work on a new church commenced about 100 metres from the old one – it is almost finished (the top photograph and the photographs below).

PURCHASE PHOTO AS APPAREL, ART, BAGS, HOME DECOR, PHONE CASES, OR STATIONERY

The grounds are gorgeous – with large cyprus trees and a sloping terrace that leads to the newly built church, still under construction. The views of the Alazani Valley and the Greater Caucasus mountains are stunning. So if you are in the Kakheti Region of Georgia, near Sighnagi, get thee to a nunnery, the beautiful Bodbe nunnery.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Comments

2016 update on Rike Park, Tbilisi: from construction to busy park

From a flat patch of uninteresting dirt, Rike Park in Tbilisi, Georgia, has transformed in four years (from 2014-2016) into a busy park full of trees, flower beds, sculptures, fountains, and events. Rike (Rikhe) Park is on the left bank of the Mt’k’vari River (the Kura River) near the Old City of Tbilisi. The Peace Bridge links the right bank to Rike Park. Rike Park is below the hillside Presidential Palace and, via cable car, it is the starting point for the ride to Sololaki Ridge (with the Narikala Fortress and the Mother of Georgia statue). The glass box-shaped cable car terminus was opened on 23 June 2012, and since then the park has continually developed into a ‘people’s park’ where people can walk around, eat at the nearby restaurants, sit next to the statue of American president Ronald Reagan, climb the steps to Avlabari district, and access the sights of Meidan Square, the Peace Bridge, the Metekhi Church, the Old City, the waterfall, the sulphur baths, and t...

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...

Apes go to the movies - and remember the scenes

Apes remember major events in movies, even after a single viewing. That’s the findings of primate research in Japan (New Scientist, September 17, 2015). Researchers at the Kyoto University in Japan conducted experiments with two species of apes – chimpanzees and bonobo primates – to test their memory and recall. Instead of using food to test memory, they used films. The researchers made two short movies to show to the apes. Fumihiro Kano and his colleague, Satoshi Hirata, starred in the films with another person dressed as an ape. They wanted to have strong dramatic scenes to see if the apes remembered them. In the first 30-second movie the character ape bursts through a door on the right hand side (there is also a door on the left hand side) and attacks the two researchers (characters) 18 seconds after the start. After 24 seconds a human character choses one of two weapons next to each other and launched a revenge attack on the ape. In the second 30-second movie t...

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog