Jvaris Mama Church

Jvaris Mama Church is located on Kote Abkhazi Street in the very center of old Tbilisi. The modern building of the church was built in 1825 on the site of an earlier 16th-century church destroyed during the sack of the city by the troops of Agha Mohammad Khan in 1795. The compact brick church with a low dome is almost hidden among residential houses and commercial buildings, making it a typical example of urban church architecture of old Tiflis.

The name "Jvaris Mama" translates as "Father of the Cross" and is linked to the Georgian Monastery of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem. For several centuries, the church served as the primary connecting link between Tbilisi and Georgian monasteries in the Holy Land. Donations, church records, and funds for the maintenance of Georgian monastic communities in Palestine passed through it. Until 1921, the church officially belonged to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

During the Soviet era, the church was closed and used for utilitarian purposes; services resumed only in the late 1980s. Today the church is active once again and remains one of the oldest shrines in the historic city center. On the facades, one can observe brick ornamentation and crosses characteristic of old Tbilisi, laid out in darker brick. Due to dense urban construction, the church is almost imperceptible from the street and reveals itself only to those who carefully explore the old quarters of Tbilisi.