Living the high life.
Katskhi pillar is located at the village of Katskhi in western Georgian region of Imereti, near the town of Chiatura. It is approximately 130ft high and over looks the small river valley of Katskhura.
You would imagine, it would be a great place for sight seeing, but not somewhere you would call home, especially if you were afraid of heights.
Well, to this 59-year-old monk, this beautiful sky-scraping natural limestone monolith is where his humble abode lies.
Maxime Qavtaradze, has lived a life of virtual solitude for the last 20 years in his little cottage which resides beside the remains of a church which is 1,000-years old and perched at its peak.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr-QmTlPee4
Qavtaradze, does have one slight problem with the situation of his current home. Leaving his home to go for a trek into the town of Chiatura, takes longer than the actual Chiatura trip itself.
A self-constructed ladder, which scales down the 130ft pillar, takes the monk twenty minutes to climb.
The number of visitors he allows to visit this majestic place is few and far between. Mainly, guests would have a limited range from other monks and priests, to people looking for peace and forgiveness.
After all, peace and forgiveness is the main reason Qavtaradze moved up there in the first place. After a stint in prison, he decided he needed to make a change and even used a fridge as his bed for a while.
Before the monk made this is home, the place was abandoned until 1944 and the skeleton of the previous owner was found there.
Religious activity started to revive on the pillar when the monk arrived in 1995 and in 2005, the monastery building was restored with the support of the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation of Georgia, that is a mouthful.
Hopefully, the agency can provide him with an elevator soon.
