The 12th century Gelati Monastery, located outside Kutaisi, was returned to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2017, with independent status.

Gelati Monastery and Bagrati Cathedral, both located near Kutaisi, western Georgia, were first put on the UNESCO list within a single shared nomination in 1994. In 2010, due to non-compliant reconstruction works done on Bagrati Cathedral, both Gelati Monastery and Bagrati Cathedral were put on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger with the result that UNESCO removed Bagrati Cathedral from its World Heritage Sites, considering its major reconstruction “detrimental to its integrity and authenticity”. Rehabilitation works recently carried out on the Gelati Monastery complex, however, fully comply with World Heritage Convention principles.

In a decision made at the World Heritage Committee meeting in Krakow, in July, 2017, Gelati Monastery is now back on the World Heritage List, following the placing of the town of Mtskheta (Georgia’s ancient capital) on the same list last year.

Mikhail Giorgadze, the Minister of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia, stated that, through consultations with experts from UNESCO and with the help of German and Polish partners, work to nominate the Kutaisi historical landscape-historical zone is underway, with the aim that Bagrati Cathedral can once more be preserved and represented in the context of a World Cultural Heritage Monument.