Tsilkani cathedral
წილკნის ღვთისმშობლის ტაძარი | |
![]() Tsilkani cathedral. | |
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41°56′58″N 44°39′29″E / 41.949573°N 44.658064°E | |
Location | Tsilkani, Mtskheta Municipality, Mtskheta-Mtianeti, Georgia |
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Type | Domed church |
The Tsilkani cathedral of the Mother of God (
Location
The Tsilkani cathedral stands in the centre of the eponymous village—northwest of the ancient city of
History
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/Tsilkani_icon_of_Virgin_Mary_%28Art_Museum_of_Georgia%29.jpg/220px-Tsilkani_icon_of_Virgin_Mary_%28Art_Museum_of_Georgia%29.jpg)
The Tsilkani church is credited by the medieval Georgian chronicles to
The cathedral was home to the venerated
Layout
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e4/Tsilkani_church_%28Photo_A._Muhranoff%29-1.jpg/220px-Tsilkani_church_%28Photo_A._Muhranoff%29-1.jpg)
The extant church, measuring 28 × 24 m and built largely of dressed sandstone blocks, is a cross-in-square building, with a semicircular apse and a central dome held up on four free-standing piers. The base of the dome is pierced with 12 windows. The interior is additionally lit with 10 windows cut in the walls. The church has three entrances. To the south porch is attached a small hall church with a semicircular apse and two niches, connected via a doorway to the cathedral's south nave. The church bears remnants of the coarse wall paintings, dated from the 15th century to the 18th.[2]
The cathedral is enclosed in a late-18th-century stone curtain wall, measuring 58 × 72 m. The wall is pierced by an arched brick gate on the southwest and a number of embrasures and contain rounded corner towers, one of which, on the southeast, is topped by a 19th-century hexagonal belfry.[2]
References
- ^ "List of Immovable Cultural Monuments" (PDF) (in Georgian). National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation of Georgia. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
- ^ ISBN 978-9941-15-896-4.
- ^ Alibegashvili, Gaiane; Volskaja, Aneli (1982). "The Icons of Georgia". In Weitzman, Kurt (ed.). The Icon. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 89.