The Mtskheta Church of Holy Cross, an outstanding monument of Georgian architecture, was one of the greatest religious sites and a center of pilgrimage for Christian nations of the Caucasus.
GPS coordinates for Garmin/Navitel: N41.838122, E44.734182
The Church was built on the place where, at the beginning of the 4th century, the Illuminatress of Georgia St. Nino and the first Christian Georgian king Mirian erected a large wooden cross. An octagonal base of the cross is still preserved in the center of the church.
The Church of Holly Cross is a tetra-conch type with appendixes. It was built by the Presiding Prince of Kartli (Iberia) Stephanos Patriklos on the turn of the sixth and seventh centuries. The images of the donors, Stephanos, his brother Demetre, and son Adarnase are located on the eastern facade of the Church. Accompanying inscriptions give names and titles of the donors.
The Church of Holy Cross is the first Georgian church where reliefs take significant place in the decor of the facades. In the tympanum of the Southern facade there is a composition of Ascension of the Cross, and on the facet of the drum of the dome there is a figure of an unidentified person, possibly of the architect.
The small church north to the main building was erected in the second half of the sixth century. Partially survived defensive wall and hermit sell south-west of the Holly Church are from later period.
Since 1994 Jvari Church, together with other historical monuments of Mtskheta, has been inscribed upon the World Heritage List of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. Inscription on this list confirms the outstanding universal value of a cultural or natural property which deserves protection for the benefit of all humanity.
We visited Jvari in the evening. Dark blue and gray colors make the Church even more monumental…
Scenic view to Mtskheta town, Mtkvari and Aragvi rivers:
This evening was not only cold, but also windy enough. The wind was so strong that it could flip someone around!
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