Georgian Orthodox monastery in eastern Georgia, in the region of Kakheti, founded in the 6th century. Located on one of the easternmost spurs of the Greater Caucasus Range, the monastery is part of the larger historical monument of Nekresi, a once flourishing city of late antiquity. In the medieval Georgian literary tradition, the beginning of monasticism in Nekresi is associated with the name of the 6th-century monk Abibos of Nekres, known for his Christian proselytism and struggle against Zoroastrianism. The monastery was closed shortly after the abolition of the Georgian Church by the Russian Empire in 1811. After an almost two-century break, the monastery began to function again in 2000. Nekresi Monastery rises on a wooded hill known as Mount Nazvrevi Gora (literally “hill of the former vineyards”), in the eastern part of the historical monument of Nekresi, about 3.7 km east of the modern village of Shilda (Kvareli municipality). It is a complex of buildings that includes the three-church basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and a funeral chapel dating back to the 6th century, the Church of the Archangel Michael built in the 8th or 9th century, the episcopal palace of the 9th century, as well as a refectory of the 12th century, a defensive tower of the 16th century, the remains of warehouses and other ancillary facilities. The complex is included in the list of immovable cultural monuments of national importance in Georgia.