Svetitskhoveli Cathedral

The Glory of Iberia (1880s), an icon by Mikhail Sabinin illustrating the legend of Living Pillar.

The original church was built in 4th century A.D. during the reign of Mirian III of Kartli (Iberia). St. Nino is said to have chosen the confluence of the Mtkvari (Kura) and Aragvi rivers as the place of the first Georgian Church.

According to Georgian hagiography, in the 1st century AD a Georgian Jew from Mtskheta named Elias was in Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified. Elias bought Jesus’ robe from a Roman soldier at Golgotha and brought it back to Georgia. Returning to his native city, he was met by his sister Sidonia who upon touching the robe immediately died from the emotions engendered by the sacred object. The robe could not be removed from her grasp, so she was buried with it.[4] The place where Sidonia is buried with Christ's robe is preserved in the Cathedral. Later, from her grave grew an enormous cedar tree. Ordering the cedar chopped down to build the church, St. Nino had seven columns made from it for the church's foundation. The seventh column, however, had supernatural properties and rose by itself into the air. It returned to earth after St. Nino prayed the whole night. It was further said that from the seventh column a sacred liquid flowed that cured people of all diseases.

In Georgian sveti means "pillar" and tskhoveli means "life-giving" or "living", hence the name of the cathedral. An icon portraying this event can be seen on the third column on the left-hand from the entrance. Reproduced widely throughout Georgia, it shows Sidonia with an angel lifting the column in heaven. Saint Nino is in the foreground: King Mirian and his wife, Queen Nana, are to the right and left.[4] Georgia officially adopted Christianity as its state religion in 337.

A 17th-century ciborium under which the robe of Jesus is said to have been buried

Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, originally built in the 4th century, has been damaged several times during history, notably by the invasions of Arabs, Persians and Timur, and latterly during Russian subjugation and the Soviet period. The building has also been damaged by earthquakes.

The present Svetitskhoveli Cathedral was built between 1010 and 1029 by the architect Arsukidze, at the invitation of the Catholicos Melchizedek I of Georgia. The king of Georgia at that time was Giorgi I (George I).

A notable reconstruction was carried out at the end of 14th century after it was destroyed by Tamerlan. The next large renovation came in the beginning of 15th, when the current dome was built, being subsequently renovated again in the middle of 17th century.

During the restoration of 1970-71 which was presided over by Vakhtang Tsintsadze, the base of the basilica built in the late 5th century by King Vakhtang Gorgasali after St. Nino's original church was found. During the early years of Georgian church building, the basilica was the dominant type of the Georgian church architecture before the crossed-dome style emerged.

The cathedral is surrounded by a defensive wall, built of stone and brick during the reign of King Erekle II (Heraclius) in 1787.

In the beginning of 1830s the cathedral was visited by the Russian Emperor. In connection with this, the portal galleries, surrounding the church from the north, west and south, which had been in unsatisfactory condition, were demolished.

Archaeological expeditions in 1963 found the 11th century house of the Patriarch at the southern part of the wall. Inside the church yard, the remains of the two-story palace of Patriarch Anton II were found.

A legend surrounds a relief sculpture on the external northern wall. This shows a right arm and hand holding an L-square - symbol of the stonemason – with an inscription reads:

:The Hand of Arsukidze,

slave of God,

may forgiveness be his.

An inscription on the east façade further attests to the fact that Arsukidze did not live to see his masterpiece finished (in 1029):

:This holy church was built by the hand of Thy wretched servant, Arsukidze.

May your soul rest in peace, O Master.

Konstantine Gamsakhurdia's novel The Hand of the Great Master relates the legend, for which there is no documentary evidence, that a priest who had also been Arsukidze's patron and teacher was so jealous of Arsukidze's success that he used his influence with the king to have the architect's right hand cut off. According to the novel, King George was also jealous of Arsukidze over his lover, the beautiful Shorena.

One of the frescoes of the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral

The cathedral interior walls were once fully adorned with medieval frescoes, but many of them did not survive. In the 1830s, when Emperor Nicholas I was scheduled to visit Mskheta, Russian authorities razed the galleries and whitewashed timeless frescoes as part of an effort to give the cathedral a "tidier look"; in the end the Czar never even came. Today, after much careful restoration, some frescoes survive, including a 13th-century depiction of the "Beast of the Apocalypse" and figures of the Zodiac.[3]

The walls are decorated with many Christian Orthodox icons, most of which are not original (the originals being in the national museums of Georgia). The decoration of the church stonework also features carved grapes (as in many churches of Georgia), reflecting the country's ancient wine-making traditions. The large figure of Jesus at the altar was painted by Russian artist in the 19th century. The majority of the icons here date to the 20th century. Some are copies of older icons and frescoes from other churches throughout Georgia.

Two bulls' heads on the east façade, remnants of the 5th-century church, attest to the folk influence on Christian iconography in that early period.

On the right side from the entrance of the Cathedral is a stone baptismal font dating from the 4th century. It is thought to have been used for the baptism of King Mirian and Queen Nana. Immediately behind the font is a reproduction of the relief of Arsukidze's right hand and bevel found on the north facade.

A 14th-century copy of the aedicule of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

On the south side there is a small stone church built into the Cathedral. This is a symbolic copy of the Chapel of Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Built between the end of the 13th and the beginning the 14th centuries, it was erected here to mark Svetitskhoveli as the second most sacred place in the world (after the church of Jerusalem), thanks to Christ's robe. In front of this stone chapel, the most westerly structure aligned with the columns between the aisle and the nave marks Sidonia's grave. Remains of the original life-giving pillar are also here. It was built in the 17th century. Scenes of the lives of King Mirian and Queen Nana, and portraits of the first Christian Byzantine Emperor, Constantine I, and his mother Helena, were painted by G. Gulzhavarashvili at that time. Traces of the foundations of the 4th-century church have been found here.

The second structure aligned with the columns of the southern aisle was also built in the 17th century as the throne of Catholicos Diasamidze. It no longer serves this function, as current tradition requires a throne for the Georgian patriarch to be in the centre of the church.