Christianity
სვეტიცხოველი
Svetitskhoveli Cathedral
“A nation's first cathedral, standing under the name of a living pillar”
Photo: Moahim · CC BY-SA 4.0
Scenes
Meaning
The setting sun comes over the fortress wall and turns the sandstone gold, and beneath the conical roof a thousand years of stone stand quietly.
The mother cathedral of Georgian Orthodoxy, in the old capital of Mtskheta. Tradition holds that the robe of Christ, carried here from Jerusalem, was buried on this spot, and that a pillar raised from the cedar grown over that grave gave off light of its own — hence Svetitskhoveli, the living pillar. King Mirian is said to have raised the first wooden church here in the fourth century at the urging of St. Nino, and the present building is held to be the work of the architect Arsukisdze in the early eleventh. Georgian kings lie beneath its floor, and as part of the Historical Monuments of Mtskheta it is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Voices across time
“This is the hand of the servant Arsukisdze; grant him forgiveness.”
Roads through this light
Field notes
- Location
- Mtskheta · Georgia · N41.8° · E44.7°
- Best time
- Dusk, when the sandstone walls take their warmest color
- Getting there
- About thirty minutes by road from Tbilisi, within the old town of Mtskheta.
- Etiquette
- Women cover their heads with a scarf, and photography is set aside during services.
Sources
- · UNESCO World Heritage
- · Encyclopaedia Britannica
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