13th Century Georgian church on “brink of destruction” brought back to life
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A unique medieval church in Georgia’s northwest has been restored to its original state after being neglected for hundreds of years, and join other monuments of Georgian historical importance in the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region.
The Skuri Transfiguration Church in the Tsalenjikha Municipality near the regional capital Zugdidi dated back to the 13th Century AD. The church was partially disintegrated and close to the "brink of destruction,” Georgia’s National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation said last year.
The project to restore the historical monument was commissioned in 2014 and work was scheduled to be carried out in two stages within the state program for Cultural Heritage Protection.
The Skuri Transfiguration Church in Georgia’s west was reported on the "brink of destruction" by experts. This is how the church looked like before and after the restoration.
The first stage of works saw specialists clean the building’s surrounding area of malicious plants and identify and mark stones in the ground that had been used in the original monument construction.
The identified material was then used to restore the western, northern and southern facades of the church before the second stage commenced earlier this year, and involved reconstruction of the inner space of the church.
On Saturday, November 28 Georgia’s Culture and Monument Protection Minister Mikheil Giorgadze and National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation General Director Nikoloz Antidze were due to visit the restored church.
The visit will also involve the Zugdidi and Tsaishi Eparchy Bishop Gerasime, who will lead a ceremony to bless the historical monument and raise a cross to mark its commencement.
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