Ateni (Georgia)

Ateni (Georgian ატენი; ɑtɛnɪ ) refers to two villages in the Gori municipality of the region of Inner Kartli in Georgia. Patara Ateni ( " small Ateni " ) and Didi Ateni ( "big Ateni " ) are located in the picturesque valley of the Tana, a right tributary of the Mtkvari south of Gori.

Patara Ateni is a wine-growing village, which begins about three kilometers to the settlement boundary of Gori and extends over two kilometers along the road. Is 6.5 kilometers from Gori on the left side of the road the small Ateni Church to see within a walled district. It was built in the 7th century and enlarged in the 9th or 10th century. The most famous building in the valley is the built in early 7th century Atenier Sioni Church in the village of Didi Ateni, eight kilometers south of Gori. The road winds on the southern flank of the mountain and ends about 25 kilometers southwest of the city near the village Kvemo Boshuri 1130 meters.

Didi Ateni was mentioned in the 9th century in the chronicles as a town and in the 11th century by the Georgian king Bagrat IV expanded. Three forts on the hills secured once the valley: Ateni, Were and Dekziche. From the 13th to the 17th century Ateni remained an urban center, its importance in the 18th century, gradually declined.