31.10.2019

Zion Cathedral. Sioni Cathedral. History of Sioni Cathedral

Throughout Georgia there were only fifty operating churches during the collapse of the Union, but now there are about 800 open churches and monasteries in the country.

Tbilisi. Temple on the Metekhi rock.

Tbilisi has many names that are associated with the Holy Land of Israel, where the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ, was incarnated. Sioni is such a place. Here is one of the main temples of the country, which is named after Mount Zion and consecrated in honor of the Assumption Holy Mother of God. The temple also houses the largest relic for Georgian Christians - the ancient cross of St. Nino, made of vine branches and hair.

Until recently, Sioni was the Tbilisi Cathedral, namely, until it was built. The temple is located on Zionskaya Street in the historical center of the old city on the banks of the Kura River. The original church was demolished by the Arabs after the establishment of the emirate. In 1112, David IV the Builder, having freed Tbilisi from the Arabs, erected a new cathedral in the city, which was repeatedly destroyed and restored.

In 1226, the Khorezm Shah Jalal-ed-din conquered Georgia and entered Tbilisi. Wanting to convert the Georgian people to the Muslim faith, he ordered to remove the dome on the Zion Cathedral of the Assumption of the Mother of God and place his throne there. The icons of Christ and the Mother of God were taken out of the temple and placed on the Metekhi Bridge. All residents of the city were herded to the bridge and, promising freedom, they were ordered to walk across it, desecrating the icons. Women, children, and young men refused to spit on the holy images, for which their heads were cut off and thrown into the Kura. The exact number of martyrs is unknown, but according to legend, on one day there were up to 100 thousand who became saints! The memory of the Tbilisi martyrs is preserved by Georgia and will always be remembered.

Particularly significant work was required after the invasion of Jalal ad-Din and the earthquake of 1668. In September 1795, the cathedral was severely damaged by the invasion of Agha Mohammed Khan. The wooden choir and iconostasis were burned, the frescoes were covered with soot and soot. The cathedral was restored only in 1817.

Next to the temple there are two bell towers - one is ancient, three-tiered, built in the 15th century, destroyed by the Persians and restored in the 20th century, the other is Russian classicism (built in 1812).

Church territory.

The main attraction of the Metekhi area is the Assumption Church, picturesquely placed on the ridge of a cliff, built in 1278. Metekhi also has tragic story, like many Christian churches, this temple was literally wiped off the face of the earth many times, but each time it was restored again. Metekhi Church was built in the 12th century; Queen Tamara prayed here many times. In 1235, the Tatar-Mongols who came from the north completely destroyed it. After they were expelled from Georgian land, the temple was built again. In the 15th century, this temple was again destroyed, this time by Persian invaders.

The temple is the only one left from the entire complex of buildings, which included royal palace, monastery, fortress. The name Metekhi itself means “around the palace”; next to the temple there was a large royal castle, and all the buildings were surrounded by powerful fortifications. For some reason the palace was destroyed in the 50s, and Beria wanted to destroy the temple, but thanks to one artist it was defended. The temple remained, but its defender was destroyed. The name of the hero is Dmitry Shevardnadze, let it also remain in memory.

Under the arches of the Mekhete Church lies the first Georgian martyr, the Christian Queen Shushanika Ranskaya, who was brutally murdered by her fire-worshipping husband in the 5th century.

On the Metekhi rock, as the legend says, Saint Abo of Tbilisi suffered martyrdom. At the site of the burning of Abo’s body, on the banks of the Kura River, the famous Metekhi temple was erected in the 13th century. An Arab by nationality, he was engaged in the production of fragrant oils in Baghdad. Arrived in the Tbilisi Emirate, subject to the Arab Caliphate in 775. During his time in Tbilisi, Abo felt inclined towards the Christian faith, initially engaging in theological debates with Christians, but then came to believe that they were right. Later he arrived in Khazaria, where he was baptized, then he practiced asceticism in Abkhazia. He returned to Tbilisi and preached Christianity to the Arabs there; in 785 he was thrown into prison by order of the Arab emir and on the day of the Epiphany he was beheaded, the body was burned and in sheep's clothing the ashes are thrown into the Kura. At this place, according to legend, there were visions of pillar-shaped light.

The Church of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, better known as the Norashen Church, is an Armenian church in Tbilisi. It is the subject of a dispute between the Georgian and Armenian churches, and the temple itself suffers because of this uncertainty. There is a huge crack in the middle.

To the left of it is the Georgian Orthodox Church of the Holy Cross - Jvaris Mama. This is old Tbilisi, the corner of Jerusalem and Leselidze streets. According to some sources, the church was founded by Vakhtang Gorgasal in the 5th century. The modern building dates from the 16th century.

There are beautiful paintings inside the temple. Everything is completely open, there is no one in the temple. Prayerful atmosphere.

There is such a nice courtyard around the temple.

Tabori or Church of the Transfiguration. Tabori is Tabor in our opinion, a mountain in Israel where Christ was transfigured. In addition to Zion, Tbilisi also has Mount Tabor.) The most high point cities.

In the background is the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker inside the Narikala fortress on Mount Mtsatminda. A very important place in the city, which is called the soul of the capital.

Nor Etchmiadzin is a temple of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The chronicles speak of the forced relocation of about 200 Armenian families from Etchmiadzin, where the settlers fought near the Arpa River with the Turks who were driving them to the Ottoman Empire. They settled in Tiflis, and later a church was built.

I wasn’t able to see all the temples in Tbilisi, only the famous ones. I hope to be here again someday and really see and touch everything.

Zion Cathedral in the name of the Assumption Mother of God in Tbilisi, like Mtskheta, represents the indestructible tablet of Orthodoxy of the Georgian people. It received its name from Jerusalem’s Mount Zion, in the upper room of which the first Eucharist, the Last Supper, was held. On the territory of Georgia there are many temples named after famous evangelical places Palestine. But Zion in Georgia was the name given to churches dedicated exclusively to the Mother of God.

In 1112, David the Builder, having freed the country from foreigners, built a new cathedral in the city, which would be destroyed more than once. The temple suffered greatly from the Mongol invasion in 1226, and its dome was destroyed by order of Jalal ad-Din. Subsequently, it will be repaired, but it was damaged again during the invasion of Tamerlane in 1386 and again repaired by the Georgian king Alexander I. Significant damage to the temple was caused by the Persian invasion at the beginning of the 17th century. The dome will need to be restored again. The extent of restoration work is often evidenced by the surviving inscriptions on the temple. Thus, on the southern vestibule the story is told about the work carried out in 1657: “By the will of God and with the help of the Mother of God of Zion, I, Tbilisi Metropolitan Elisha Saginashvili, built the dome of Sioni, double side vaults and the vestibule, painted and decorated. Grant forgiveness for God's sake. Amen. In the chronicle 345." In 1668, the city was struck by a terrible earthquake, which also damaged the church of Sioni. Its restoration in 1710 by Batonishvili Vakhtang VI, regent of Kartli, is evidenced by the newly preserved inscription: “Glorifying the Holy Trinity, descendant of David, nephew of the eminent Levan, ruler of Kartli, Prince Vakhtang, renovator of the dome, with a flooring of stone slabs...” And again the church suffered during the invasion of the Persian Shah Aga Mohammed Khan in 1795, who turned the entire city into a pile of ruins, exterminating some of the inhabitants or taking them into slavery. The wooden iconostasis will completely burn out and will be replaced with a stone one in 1850.

Both outside and inside the cathedral there are quite visible traces of several building alterations, so their exact dating is quite difficult. But the overall compositional layout of the temple that has come down to us is typical of the typical medieval architecture of Georgia of the 12th-13th centuries. From the 12th century The plan of the Sioni Church did not change significantly. The temple was built from yellow tuff. The ornamental design is quite restrained and lacks any bright decorative elements. There are bas-reliefs of a carved cross and a lion on the west side, and an angel and saints on the north. The dome drum is comparatively more ornamented due to later alterations. The dome rests on vaults connecting the altar walls and two columns. Despite its rather modest appearance, the temple has always had a very high status, having been around since the 7th century. cathedral the supreme Georgian hierarchs of the church - Catholicoses. It had this status until the consecration of the new Holy Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi in 2004. The Cathedral also became the final resting place for many deceased Georgian primates.

Sioni Cathedral is a unique historical and cultural monument of the country, associated with many national events of Georgia. On April 12, 1802, in the cathedral, the commander-in-chief of the Russian troops in Georgia, General Karl von Knorring, read out the Imperial Manifesto on the annexation of Georgia to Russia. The Georgian nobility gathered in the cathedral here took the oath of allegiance to the Russian throne. The walls remember him and many other events. On September 3, 1828, the marriage of Alexander Griboyedov and 15-year-old Nina Chavchavadze took place in the Zion Cathedral. The priest will write in the registry book: “The Plenipotentiary Minister in Persia of His Imperial Majesty, State Councilor and Cavalier Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov entered into a legal marriage with the girl Nina, the daughter of Major General Prince Alexander Chavchavadze.”

The interior of the cathedral will be significantly changed between 1850 and 1860, when the damaged paintings will be restored. Unfortunately, the old Georgian frescoes were lost then. The new wall painting was made according to the sketches of the Russian artist Grigory Gagarin (1810-1893); the temple iconostasis was also erected according to his design. The paintings of the cathedral dome according to his sketches were carried out by the St. Petersburg artist M. Troshchinsky. G. Gagarin was the most educated man of his time, whose interests included painting, architecture and diplomacy. He was the aide-de-camp of His Imperial Majesty and vice-president of the Imperial Academy of Arts.

The cathedral houses the greatest shrine of Georgia - the cross of St. Nina, made from two pieces of grapevine and intertwined, according to legend, with the enlightener’s own hair. The cross, with slightly lowered sides, is a symbol of the Georgian Orthodox Church and is stored in a special repository. This cross was exported to Russia in 1752, where it was kept in the village. Lyskov, Nizhny Novgorod province, and only in 1801 was returned to Georgia.

To the north of the temple, a bell tower dating back to 1425 was erected. Its upper part was destroyed by the Persians in 1795, and only in 1939 was it restored. The second three-tier bell tower, erected to the west of Sioni across the street, is of particular architectural interest. Built in 1812 in memory of Russia's victory in the Russian-Turkish War, it is the first example of classicism in Tbilisi.

The Zion Cathedral remained open throughout the Soviet period. At the same time, numerous restoration work was carried out, which made it possible to preserve the unique shrine of the Georgian people to this day.

Which until 2006 was a cathedral and, as it were, the main temple of the country. It is named Zion in honor of the Assumption Church on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, and is also the Assumption Cathedral, like all Zion Cathedrals in Georgia. In Georgia it is called simply. Now it is interesting not only as an architectural structure, but also as a storage place for several relics - for example, here you can see the cross of St. Nino.

Name

The temple is consecrated in honor of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. To put it simply modern language, it is dedicated to her death. This event itself took place in Jerusalem, in the house of Mary on Mount Zion. The first Assumption Church appeared on this site in 415. It became Uspensky in essence and Zionsky in location. Muslims destroyed it several times, and at the beginning of the 12th century the Crusaders restored it and this is how the temple appeared Sancta Maria in Monte Sion. In 1187, the Muslims destroyed it again.

At some point in Georgia they decided that accidents were not accidental and began to call all the Assumption churches Zion. And so it went. The strange thing is that the Tbilisi Zion Cathedral was built almost simultaneously with the restoration of the Jerusalem temple by the crusaders. That Jerusalem temple has reached our time in the 1910 version.

Story

The first temple on this site began to be built at the end of the 6th century. Around the 20s of the 7th century, shortly before the Arab invasion, construction was completed. We don't know what the temple was like at that time. It is contemporary with the temple of Jvari and the Aten Zion, so it could have been similar to them. Until the 20th century, it stood almost on the very edge rocky shore rivers.

The cathedral was destroyed several times - the Arabs were the first to do it. For approximately 400 years, throughout the era of the Tbilisi Emrat, the temple stood in ruins. But then something mysterious happened. In any book you will read that in 1112 David the Builder restored this temple. However, Tbilisi came under David's rule only in 1122, 10 years later. In 1112, Tbilisi was still the capital of the emirate. And so it turns out that in a formally Muslim city, for an unknown reason, a temple was restored, and it was built very large. How could this happen? Either Muslims in those years already allowed the construction of Christian churches, or there were very few Muslims in Tbilisi, or... It is unknown. Private funds would not be enough for such a construction, and the funds of the emirate would not be enough either. How the Georgian state could build such a temple on formally hostile territory is also a mystery.

Then it was destroyed by the Khorezmians in 1236, Shah Izmail in 1522, and Shah Abbas in the 17th century, and the earthquake of 1668.

In 1657, Metropolitan Elise added a vestibule to the church with south side. In 1710, the cathedral was lined with Bolnisi tuff and took on the appearance it has today.

In those years, the cathedral was used for ceremonial protocol events. For example, the royal orders were read out here. In this cathedral, on January 25, 1784, Tsar Irakli II signed the ratification document, thereby completing the ceremony of signing the Treaty of Georgievsk. A solemn liturgy was held here on this occasion.

In September 1795, the cathedral was severely burned down during the invasion of Agha Muhammad Khan. They say that “the Georgian metropolitan locked himself with the clergy in the Zion Cathedral, but the Persians, breaking into the temple, burned the iconostasis, killed the priests, and threw the old metropolitan into the Kura from his grape terrace own home. The same fate befell the entire Armenian-Gregorian clergy, gathered by order of the Shah in the Vank Cathedral.”

Modernity

Now in Tbilisi there are three churches of the 12th-13th centuries, and Zion is one of them, but, unfortunately, that cladding in 1710 changed its exterior beyond recognition. None of the carvings or decorations that characterize the temples of that era remain at all. Looking at the cathedral you feel some dissonance between its age and its appearance. He resembles a lady in her forties trying to look twenty.

By design, this is a typical cathedral of the Georgian “golden age”. It is domed, with two supporting columns and two aisles on the north and south. The layout of the cathedral and its entire interior have hardly changed since the 12th century. The only thing that confuses me is the vaults, which look too gothic. Probably they were still transferred to later eras.

There is no iconostasis in the cathedral, instead there is a classic Georgian altar partition. It can be assumed that during the imperial era there was still an iconostasis, but then it was removed.

Murals

In 1795, all the frescoes of the temple burned out. In 1853 - 1860, the temple was re-painted by Grigory Gagarin, who tried to work in the Georgian style, but still his style differs from the local Georgian one - even all the inscriptions are made in Russian. Most of the paintings in our time are Gagarin. He painted all the walls except for some reason the western one.

In 1980 - 1983, the cathedral was restored. It was then that local artist Levan Tsutskiridze personally received an order from the patriarch to paint the cathedral. And he began to paint the western wall with gloomy, modern paintings, which no artist in Georgia had allowed himself before or since. And something went wrong, somewhere the technology was violated, and the paint deteriorated. Tsutskiridze never finished his strange work. The western wall is still black with pale figures. The figures are best seen in the arches of the support pillars - some saints are depicted there in the heroic poses of Soviet heroes.

Two chapels of the cathedral are already painted in our time. These are completely new paintings, but they were made according to all the canonical rules and are quite nice. In the northern aisle you can find the “descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles” and the construction scene of Svetitskhoveli, in the southern aisle you can find the Archangels Michael and Gabriel and much more.

Cross of St. Nina

The most historical and interesting thing in the cathedral is the cross of St. Nina, the main relic of Georgia. This seems to be the same cross with which Nina entered Iberia on June 1, 320. For many centuries, from the very moment of the Baptism of Georgia, it was hidden in hard-to-reach places, taken even to Russia, and now it is placed in a frame inside the temple, a little to the left of the altar gates. Moreover, even from a close distance the cross itself is not visible; it is wrapped in cloth. On the stone frame around the cross it is written approximately “Honorable Cross, have mercy on us,” and it is written not in the Asomtavruli font, as is usually done in churches, but in a modern font, although stylized to resemble an ancient one.

Facing

The cathedral is lined with tuff on all sides except the foundation. There, at the very bottom, you can see the original stone from the 12th century. In addition, pieces of the old walls are visible here and there. If you enter the cathedral from the southern aisle, then to the right of the entrance you can see a stone corner, decorated with a heavily worn half-column. This is very similar to the original carvings from the early years. To the left of the entrance in a niche you can see a whole piece of the wall.

Old masonry can also be seen in the walls of the southern aisle, but it was built later than the cathedral itself.

Burials

Nowadays, about a dozen gravestones can be seen in and around the cathedral. Mostly bishops and clergy of the cathedral were buried outside. Inside, in front of the altar wall, on the left side, you can see the black slabs of the graves of the patriarchs - most often from the Soviet era. Closer to the southern wall there are the graves of the princes Dzhambakur-Orbeliani.

But there are also strange things. Generals Lazarev and Tsitsianov were buried in the cathedral. And these graves should have been very noticeable, because Tsitsianov was still the Commander-in-Chief in the Caucasus. And everywhere it is written that they exist. But they are not there. Even local local historians have not yet come to an understanding on this issue.

How to find

Zion Cathedral is clearly visible from any observation deck. It is recognizable by its gray dome, the dark dome of the neighboring Norashen Cathedral and a small bell tower with a spire. If you are wandering along the alleys of the Old Town, you must first get onto Leselidze Street, and then somehow turn onto the one parallel to it

A few kilometers from Tbilisi in ancient city Mtskheta is home to the main cathedral and patriarchal cathedral of the Georgian Orthodox Church. The temple is the largest historical building that has survived to this day on the territory of Georgia. The building was built here in the 11th century.

Beautiful facades, decorative arches with skillful carvings and large domes, all this was built here in honor of the 12 apostles of the Christian Church.

For the construction of the temple, the place was chosen where, according to legend, Saint Sidonia was buried and the first Christian church on the territory of Georgia, named after her. Soon the church was destroyed and periodically they tried to restore it, but something always got in the way.

At the beginning of the 11th century, the first pillar of the new structure was made of wood, and only several decades later, the church was finally built. According to legend, this tree grew over the grave of Saint Sidonia, and hence the name “Life-Giving Pillar” or in Georgian “Svetitskhoveli”.

By order of King Irakli II, a fortress wall was erected around the temple.

The cathedral is still active today.

Sioni Cathedral

Zion Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is one of the main Tbilisi churches, located in the Old City on the banks of the Kura River. The cathedral is a wonderful monument of medieval religious architecture of Georgia. According to the old Georgian tradition of giving temples the names of places significant for Christians, it was named after Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Locals usually called simply Sioni.

The first church was built on this site back in the sixth century. The fate of the cathedral was dramatic - it was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. Sioni suffered from Arabs, Khorezmians and Turks, and in the seventeenth century it was almost completely destroyed during an earthquake. Thus, the current appearance of the cathedral is due to numerous reconstructions and restorations.

The cathedral is a typical example of medieval Georgian church architecture. The walls of the cathedral are lined with yellow tuff from the city of Bolnisi. Strict facades are practically devoid of decoration. Bas-reliefs depicting a cross and a chained lion are carved on stones east wall, the northern wall is decorated with an image of an angel and saints. All sixteen windows of the cathedral are enclosed in carved stone frames.

The cathedral houses one of the main Georgian Orthodox relics - the cross of St. Nino. The cross, woven from grapevine, is enclosed in a silver frame depicting scenes from the life of the saint.

Description of the attraction by interest category