Katskhi Pillar Among Top 20 Bizarre Churches

Katskhi pillar, a natural limestone monolith located in Imereti, Western Georgia, has been listed among the top 20 most bizarre looking churches in the world, according to entertainment website LolWot.

The site stated “If you can make it here, you just might get to see some of heaven in this church. It sits on top of a 130 foot high rock formation and has been home to a monk for the last 20 years. Most interesting part? He uses a rusty old ladder to get up and down from the church and calls it the stairway to heaven.”

The pillar is located near the town of Chiatura, western Georgia and is approximately 40 metres tall, overlooking the small river valley of Katskhura. The cliff was unclimbed by researchers until 1944 but was only systematically studied from 1999 to 2009. The studies determined that the ruins dated from the 9th or 10thcentury.

Currently the Georgian Orthodox Church has built a small new church at the top of the pillar. It is reached by a vertigo-inducing iron ladder located on the upper half of the pillar. The remains of a believer, who died at the pillar at an unknown date, are kept in the new church building.

Women are not allowed to climb to the top of the pillar.

Photo by Levan Nioradze.

Click below to know more about Katskhi Pillar.

The Telegraph: The monk who lives up a rock to get closer to God

The Huffington Post: Katskhi Pillar Monk, Maxime Qavtaradze, Renews Age-Old Tradition In Georgia

Curbed National: Somebody Actually Lives on This Remote Pillar of Rock

Tamar Svanidze