Nodar Aronishidze
The G. Chubinashvili National Research Centre for Georgian Art History and Heritage Preservation
Researcher
Tbilisi, Georgia
ORCID: 0009-0001-3706-7925
Nodar Aronishidze
The G. Chubinashvili National Research Centre for Georgian Art History and Heritage Preservation
Researcher
Tbilisi, Georgia
ORCID: 0009-0001-3706-7925
Church of the Virgin in Bodorna
The present article examines the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin of Bodorna church in Dusheti municipality and its historical context. It is worth noting that the church is an example of late medieval Georgian architecture. It bears the obvious traces of its time. Its layout and especially, spatial comprehension reveal a certain unusualness and, one could say, "originality", which is not so much the result of a masterful design as of the "insurmountability" of technical conditions. The historical context of the church and its connection with the lineage of the nobility of the Aragvi Eristavs (rulers) deserve special mention.
According to inscriptions on the church, in 1717 Mitrophane, son of Aragvi Eristavi, and housemaster Kaiqubat Kobiashvili renovated the destroyed church that stood there before. Later, in the middle of the 18th century, Kaiqubat's son built a small chapel for the church from the south, which no longer exists. In 1912 the church was extensively renovated.
The single-nave church, topped with a dome, is built of cobblestones and bricks. The building material of the church is mixed, and only on the northern wall, there is a consistent alternation of stone and brick rows. As for the dome, it is built entirely of brick. The interior and exterior walls are completely whitewashed. The entrances of the church are on the south and west sides. The latter was cut out during the reconstruction in 1912. The high and arched window is in the center of the apse. The apse is flanked by small single niches. The altar stone is leaning against the wall of the apse, and the floor of the apse is raised compared to the nave. In the whitewashed templon is the Holy Door and a small opening to the north.
Single windows are on each wall of the church. The southern and northern windows are pointed, and the shape of the western window and dome openings (eight pieces) are semicircular. The subdome structure has two pointed arches carried on the hanging pilasters of the longitudinal walls, which are supported by their perpendicular two-tiered arches. This forms a subdome square, from which the pendentives are used to pass into the round drum of the dome. The articulation of the external volumes of the church, and their comprehension does not correspond to the structure of the internal space. The double-pitched roofs of the side "arms" are arranged to design a cruciform dome, with the right and north sides of the dome drum. In this regard, the middle parts of the south and north facades are raised and finished with gables (pediments). On the east façade are three full-length crosses arranged with bricks. One of them is set in the pediment area. The other facades are devoid of decoration. On the stone slab above the southern door, there is an eight-line "Mkhedruli” inscription, from which we recognize the date of renovation of the church and the names of the donors, and a twelve-line "Mkhedruli" inscription on the western facade indicates the time of renovation. Each face of the faceted dome drum has narrow, high windows surrounded by decorative frames. The ribs of the faces are provided with single shafts connected with the upper horizontal shaft. The facades of the church are completed with a simple three-tiered cornice. The drum cornice is four-tiered.
It is worth noting that the Church of the Virgin of Bodorna, like Ananuri, was a family shrine and burial vault of the Aragvi Eristav’s nobility.
Keywords: Bodorna church, Aragvi Eristav’s, Architecture, church, art.