Shemokmedi Monastery

The Shemokmedi monastery is a Georgian Orthodox monastery placed on the village of Shemokmedi in Georgia's southwestern place of Guria. Founded within the 15th century, the Shemokmedi monastery functioned as a seat of a bishopric and burial floor of the Gurieli princely dynasty. It was a safe-house of church treasures and, over the centuries, had amassed an extensive collection of diverse items from other Georgian monasteries.

Parts of the collection, which survived the nineteenth-century robbers, are now on show in Georgia's museums. The Shemokmedi Monastery was based within the 15th century as a seat of one of the 3 bishoprics of the Principality of Guria, the alternative being Jumati and Khino. Local prelates bore the rank of archbishop or metropolitan bishop and the epithet of Shemokmedeli. At the same time, the monastery served as a burial floor to the Gurieli princely dynasty. The surviving tombs belong to Rostom Gurieli and Mamia III Gurieli.