Baraleti church
ბარალეთის ეკლესია | |
Samtskhe-Javakheti, Georgia | |
Type | Two-nave basilica church |
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The Baraleti church of the Theotokos (
Architecture
The Baraleti church was built c. 1213 as suggested by a stone inscription on the eastern façade—executed in the medieval Georgian
The church is a two-nave basilica built of hewn stone blocks. The roof is covered with stone tiles. The entrance is from the south. Each façade is pierced by a single window. The walls contain shelf-like eaves. The central, northern nave terminates in a semi-circular apse, surrounded with pilasters and arches. The southern nave is lower and narrower, with a smaller semi-circular apse. An arboured belfry was superimposed on the western edge of the church in the 19th century. The exterior is decoration-poor, with only a now-damaged relief immured in the southern wall of the central nave, depicting Daniel in the lions' den, and the 13th-century text inscribed in the eastern façade.[3][4]
Churchyard
There are several tombstones scattered around the church. An epitaph on one of these honors the local Georgian priest Petre Khmaladze (1775–1856) and mentions his contribution to the defense of Christianity in the area, which had been under the Ottoman rule before passing into the control of the Russian Empire in 1829. Khmaladze was canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church in 2015.[5]
References
- ^ "List of Immovable Cultural Monuments" (PDF) (in Georgian). National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation of Georgia. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
- ^ Kharadze, Koba (2003). ჯავახეთის ხუროთმოძღვრული და ბუნების ძეგლები [Monuments of architecture and nature of Javakheti] (in Georgian). Tbilisi. p. 38.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ISBN 978-9941-15-896-4.
- ISBN 999288570X.
- ISBN 978-9941-8-0504-2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-05-09. Retrieved 2019-07-26.)
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link