ABSTRACT
According to Wakhusht Gremi became a town only in 1466, after the division of the united Georgian kingdom, when the kings of Kakheti made their residence there. In the sixteenth century the church and houses were still intact; but after the invasion of Shah Abbas, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, Gremi declined to the status of a simple burgh (Wak.1 Brosset, p. 317; Wak./Jan., p. 123). In March 1772 Giilden-
stadt (Vol. I, p. 241), visited Gremi with King Irakli 11 and wrote that five churches still remained, some with Georgian and some with Armenian inscriptions. Khakhanov, in his excellent description (MAK, VoI. VI, pp. 4, fr.) refers to Gremi as nakalakevi, 'where there was once a town'; he states that it had existed from the first centuries of Christianity and, according to tradition had covered an area of two versts, doubtless straggling along both banks of the river, as in the case of old Kutaissi. There were Georgian, Armenian and Jewish quarters with extensive cemeteries. To the west, on the slope of the mountain, some two hundred yards to the west of the Armenian cemetery, rose a three-storied castle with a walled enclosure which protected the church of the Archangel Michael (cf. Amiranashvili, pI. 171), where King Levan was buried. No less than ten churches were grouped around this area. A little to the north was the palace of King Levan, later destroyed by Shah Abbas.
