Gantiadi church
The Gantiadi Church or Tsandripshi Church is a 6th-century three-apse basilica, located in settlement of Gantiadi (Gagra district). It was built in 543 AD and altered several times in 8-10th centuries. In 1576 it was partly destroyed by Ottoman invaders. It is one of the oldest Christian temples in the Western Caucasus. Nowadays only the ruins of the basilica are left standing.
Experts of the respective field have suggested that it is the church, which was built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I for Abazg tribes when they got Christianized. In the ruins of the Basilica was found a fragment of the tombstone with the Greek uncial inscription. It seems most likely that the inscription belonged to the tomb of a clerical or secular dignitary of Abkhazia. Name of the buried is lost. The inscription is dated back to the 6th c. The church is a three-nave basilica, built of medium-size limestone Quadra of regular shape and flat brick of varied sizes.
Tsandripshi church has been given the status of national importance monument.
Literature
- V. Jaoshvili, R. Rcheulishvili, Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia, V. 2, p. 680, Tb., 1977 year.
- Cultural Heritage in Abkhazia, Tbilisi, 2015