Living on Top of Pillar of Rock

The Katskhi Pillar (aka Katskhi Column) - a 40 metres (130 ft) tall limestone monolith in the village of Katskhi, Imereti, Georgia, lays its claim to the fame because of a small church which sits atop it. The rock has been venerated by locals even before the arrival of the Christianity in the region. Reportedly pagans built the temple at this unusual location as to them the pillar was symbol of fertility.

The earliest recorded climb to the top was in 1944 when the climbers found in the ruins of the stylite church, a crypt and 600-year-old bones of a hermit who probably was the last stylite who lived there. Stylites meaning "pillar dweller" is derived from Greek word stylos (pillar) and is used for Christian ascetics who live on pillars, preaching, fasting and praying. Stylites were common in the early days of the Byzantine Empire and the first stylite was probably Simeon Stylites, the Elder, who climbed a pillar in Syria in 423 and remained there until his death 37 years later.

The original church which was built circa 5th or 6th century, was restored from 2005 to 2009, however Maxime Qavtaradze a 59-year-old monk climbed the Rock in 1995 and restarted religious activities there. The current Church is dedicated to St. Maximus, the Confessor. The top of the Pillar measures 150 Sq. Metres (1615 Sq. ft.) and besides the Church it consists of a crypt (burial vault), three hermit cells, a wine cellar, and a curtain wall on the uneven top surface of the column. At the bottom of the pillar is a recently built chapel named after St. Simeon.

Maxime Qavtaradze lives mostly on the top and his necessities including meals are sent up to him by his friends/devotees by means of a winch. The monk comes down, twice a week, using a steel ladder, to counsel persons who come to the St. Simeon Chapel seeking guidance from him for their troubles. It takes him about 20 minutes to climb up again and reportedly he has said that when he is too old/frail to use the ladder, he will remain at the top until his death.

Image from Panoramio is by Levani Lekvinadze

Image from Flickr is by ლევან ნიორაძე

Image from Flickr is by orientalizing

Image from Flickr is by Sarah Murray

Image from Flickr is by orientalizing

The Chapel at the bottom;

Image from Flickr is by orientalizing

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Source of info and more info and images: huffingtonpost.com / Wikipedia

Copyright: Images from Flickr / Panoramio are under the copyright of their owners. Actual terms of copyright/reuse is available in the source link given below each image.

Attachments:

katskhi_pillar_georgia.kmz (2.5 KB)

Remarkable place, CJM! I've never heard of Stylites or "Christian ascetics who live on pillars." As always, I learned something new from your post. Even for me, a slight loner, that would be too much isolation.  

Aug 21, 2015 5:29:03 GMT diane9247 said:

Remarkable place, CJM! I've never heard of Stylites or "Christian ascetics who live on pillars." As always, I learned something new from your post. Even for me, a slight loner, that would be too much isolation.  

Thank you Diane for your kind comments! When I saw an image of this Pillar my first impression (which turned out to be wrong) was that it was photo-shopped like two images shown below.


(For details see my blog post - Islet Made Famous by Bond Movie)

great! just have missed until now. thanks Jamal!
it reminded me to another place on earth where buildings of religion bloom on top of high rock pillars:


The Metéora - Greece

39°43'18.14"N, 21°37'50.12"E

best,
g

This pillar rock reminds me of a 1564 painting by Pieter Breughel. And when you look at the attached photo overlay- KMZ - You almost would think he had been there! 


Breughel painting.kmz (137.49 KB)

The Procession to Calvary by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Feb 5, 2017 0:53:47 GMT jeanthie said:

...You almost would think he had been there...

however above mentioned source makes clear that " Impossibly sheer outcrops of rock like this one at left characterize the landscape tradition of the Antwerp school ", it is still a good comment and pretty good try with that photo overlay Jean! (;

besides the painter could have visited the place or might have info about it's existence as Katskhi pillar ...

...In historical records ... is first mentioned by the 18th-century Georgian scholar Prince Vakhushti, who reports in his Geographic Description of the Kingdom of Georgia:

"There is a rock within the ravine standing like a pillar, considerably high. There is a small church on the top of the rock, but nobody is able to ascend it; nor know they how to do that."
...
In July 1944 a group led by the mountaineer Alexander Japaridze and the writer Levan Gotua made the first documented ascent of the Katskhi pillar. Vakhtang Tsintsadze, an architecture specialist with the group, reported in his 1946 paper that the ruins found on top of the rock were remains of two churches, dating from the 5th and 6th centuries and associated with a stylite practice, a form of Christian asceticism. Since 1999, the Katskhi pillar has become the subject of more systematic research. Based on further studies and archaeological digs conducted in 2006, Giorgi Gagoshidze, an art historian with the Georgian National Museum, re-dated the structures to the 9th–10th century. He concluded that this complex was composed of a monastery church and cells for hermits. Discovery of the remnants of a wine cellar also undermined the idea of extreme ascetism flourishing on the pillar. In 2007, a small limestone plate with the asomtavruli Georgian inscriptions was found, paleographically dated to the 13th century and revealing the name of a certain "Giorgi", responsible for the construction of three hermit cells. The inscription also makes mention of the Pillar of Life, echoing the popular tradition of veneration of the rock as a symbol of the True Cross.

religious aspects connecting the painting and the existing place so why not to presume some probable connection in real?
only the old Bruegel could tell how it was with that...