A humble and tiny house perched high on top of a cliff in the Central Asian country of Georgia which is only accessible by a 131-foot high ladder is probably many people’s idea of a dream home, but for Maxime Qavtaradze it is paradise on Earth.

Katskhi Pillar, The Staircase To Heaven

The snug little house which stands atop the Katskhi Pillar has a long and fabled history in the local area. It is believed that it has stood uninhabited since the 1400s but that it was once a top destination for monks seeking to avoid the earthly pleasures of the world and become closer to God. It is believed that this unusual tradition began in 423 AD when St Simeon the Elder climbed a pillar in Syria. His example sparked devotees and copycats all over the world, including in Georgia. However, in recent centuries the practice has fallen almost completely out of favour – with the notable exception of the monk Maxime Qavtaradze.

Qavtaradze lives a completely isolated existence most of the time. However, he does scale down the impressively tall ladder down the cliff, a feat which takes twenty minutes at a time, to visit the nearby monastery. While at the monastery, Qavtaradze counsels troubled young men who seek him out for assistance. According to the young men, he has helped over the years his counsel has been invaluable, no doubt because he was once a very troubled young man himself. Qavtaradze explains that he turned to Christianity and found his vocation as a monk when he was doing time in prison after a particularly damaging period in his life when he worked as a drunk dealer and developed serious alcohol problems. Upon his release from prison in 1993, he took monastic vows. Now he has devoted his life to rebuilding the monastery complex, the chapel and the hermitage in the local area.

This isolated kind of existence might seem very strange to most people, but according to Qavtaradze, he wouldn’t want to live any other way. He says that at the peak of the cliff that he calls home he can feel the presence of God. While Qavtaradze has no trouble navigating the ladder to his house at this present time, he knows that a time will come when he will be too frail to make the daunting climb twice a week. He says that when that time comes he plans to remain at the top of the ladder until he dies, just like the hermits of the medieval period who came before him.