David Gareja monastery complex
Dawit Gareja (Georgian: დავითგარეჯა, Azerbaijani: Keschisch Dagh ) is a Christian monastery in eastern Georgia. It is located on the mountain Udabno in the Kakheti region, directly on the border with Azerbaijan. The oldest monastery in Georgia is on the short list of UNESCO World Heritage.
Name
The name of the Lavra of St. David is explained that David, one of the relocated " Thirteen Syrian Fathers" in the 6th century in the desert Gareja and founded the first monastery. The Lavra was later named after him and was the central monastery.
Other related items are, inter alia, Bertubani (now in Azerbaijan), Zamebuli, Dodorka, Natlismzemeli, Udabno and Tschitschchituri. You are not far from Dawit Gareja and in a northern mountain range in the open settlement Udabno. There are a total of at least 13 archaeological sites.
Biogeophysical situation of the monastery complex
The Monastery of Dawit Gareja clings to a slightly wedge-shaped wide-open mountain slope, the cuts extending in the West easterly ridge of Udabno in ostgeorgischen steppe across. The oldest quarters consist of cave-like openings that receive their coverage through the natural conditions of the sandstone layers inclined. The hermit chambers are located in two opposing rock walls which are arranged in bunk -like order due to the inclination of the natural rock strata.
The wedge-shaped widening is locked in its lower part by an ancient wall that protects the inner monastery complex. A second wall includes at the top of the Lavra.
The special feature for the survival of this hermitage there in the shade and, therefore, oasis-like terrain situation with some trees and other plants. This allows a modest and carefully leading livestock industry for the monastery. The water supply plays a special role in the life of the monks and is based on an unusual old plant. The low rainfall in the form of rain and fog droplets ( 878 m g Udabno ) collected starting in the summit region of the ridge from the ridge Udabno with a partly hidden grave system and intermediate tanks as well as a few in the sloping rock faces carved main ditches to a central location in a rock niche performed. The already ascetic life in the monastery does not remain unaffected by the annual rainfall.
In the environment of the monastery underline wavy and arranged parallel ridges in the direction NW-SE. In the south the land drops sharply into a slightly undulating plain of the neighboring Azerbaijan. The landscape is arid and the few, mostly arid steppe vegetation changes with dry, saline soils from even further north. To the east, the landscape turns into a semi -desert zone.
Geology
The area surrounding the monastery complex Dawit Gareja stands out because of its unusual surface structure, particularly the striking image tilted rock layers. This landscape is part of the tectonic unit Sagarejo - Shirak - Adshinaur zone. It is caused by marine deposition of sediment layers from the Miocene and Pliocene, ie in the period prior to 23 to 1.8 million years ago.
These sedimentary deposits grow to a thickness of 1000 meters. In the regional geology they are after a nearby river called the Iori structures and the middle part of the Rioni - Kura Valley. This intermediate mountain valley forms the connection between the systems of the Greater and Lesser Caucasus. On a larger scale they are a part of Grusinisch -Azerbaijani soil.
In the region encountered mainly sandstones, marls and clays.
History and historical context
Archaeological excavations have discovered in the region of the urban-type settlements from the Late Bronze and Iron Age the following.
The monastery Dawit Gareja emerged in the mid-6th century. In quick succession founded in his environment and in eastern Georgia more monasteries, largely along the lines of Davit Gareja. These monastic foundations fall into a period of time, after which the Georgian bishops no longer in the synods of the Armenian Church in Dvin (552 ) involved and turned away from the Monophysite doctrine, which was from this time on for the Armenian Church to the binding theory.
The immigrants of Syrian monasteries Group of Thirteen Syrian fathers were the initiators of the monastic life in what was then Georgia and completed the Christian missionary Georgia under King Parsman VI. ( 542-557 ). In the course of Christianization is deleted by the Bishop of Nekresi the "eternal fire " of Zoroastrianism, what can stone him the governor of the Persian occupation.
Georgia gained 591 in the reign of Prince Stephen I ( 590-607 ) its full political autonomy again, since the Persian Great King Khosrau II of Armenia and today's eastern Georgia was forced to cede to the Eastern Roman Empire and thus lost access to Georgia (see also Roman- Persian wars). After the Eastern Roman Emperor Maurikios the Armenian Church imposed upon a union with Konstantin Opel, the Armenian ( 603-628 ) split after the occupation by Persian troops in the last Roman -Persian war from the year 610. This was equivalent to a final separation between the Armenian and Georgian church because the church was facing Orthodoxy in Georgia.
A change of monastic life in Dawit Gareja is associated with the effect of Hillarion Karthweli. This was one of the exponents in the monastic movement, and came to this place 837. In the following ten years, he enlarged the monastery area, the Church of the Transfiguration of Christ made the main church, built new cells and dining halls for the monks. This development continued the transformation of the hermit life into an organized monastic community in transition. In the wake of the monastery gained steadily in importance until the 13th century, reaching well in this era its greatest flowering.
A termination of this development, there was massive by acting foreign rule in Georgia. Particularly detrimental was the effect of the Mongol invasion ( 1265 ), the incidence of Tamerlane (around 1394) and the conquest of Georgia by the Persian Shah Abbas in the years 1616-17. Some monastic communities were lost and the organizational structure in the monastery suffered damage thereby. More ratios occupation by the Turkish invasions in the 18th and 19th centuries led to the further disintegration of the monastic movement in the whole of Eastern Georgia.
Several Georgian kings tried to bring the late 17th and early 18th century repeatedly monastic life again in motion. As 1690 Onuphrius Machutadze was appointed abbot, entered a temporary revival. Under his leadership, the monastic community endeavored to obtain ancient lands and rights. It even new fortifications were built. Nevertheless, the 18th century saw a decline of communities and in the 19th century only the monastery Natlismtsemeli was inhabited by several monks. This situation fell most buildings.
In the period of the Soviet Union and after its disintegration were historic preservation conservation and restoration measures at longer intervals and with varying degrees, usually based on simple means, performed. As the area is part of Georgia, partly on Azerbaijani territory, there are about 1991 clashes that led no mutually agreed solution to this day.
Today he lives in Dawit Gareja again a small monastic community that strives comprehensively to the preservation of cultural-religious and architectural heritage.
Architecture and Art
In Dawit Gareja, Udabno Natlismtsemeli and Bertubani important frescoes are available. In Udabno a fresco painting "The Entry into Jerusalem " and other Ikonenbildnisse exists.
The few buildings of the Lavra in Dawit Gareja including the bell tower are built of hewn irregular blocks and rock fragments. To ornament they are added to a portal with baked bricks. The roof covering is made of baked bricks. In the western part of the monastery area a guard tower overlooks a rocky crag on the entire system. The most important sculptural achievement is in an environment of round profiles portal that hosts a Georgian inscription in his Tympanonfeld.
The entire monastery complex developed from the 11th to the 13th century, very strong, as the old areas ( Dawit Gareja, Natlismzemeli, Dodorka ) enlarged and developed new ones, such Udabno Tschitschchituri and Bertubani. Archaeological research has found about 5000 monks' cells in the entire monastery complex.
For her to creating functional structure, they oriented the new facilities at their building on Dawit Gareja. Man created in all parts of cloisters common dining halls and church rooms, stayed in a better light conditions and the rooms decorated with fresco work. In the wake of this development, these monasteries took a central role in the religious and national spiritual life in Eastern Georgia. They even gained a certain economic position and influenced the arts, especially painting. Here they practiced by their typical color scheme from a formative influence. In the literature, the surviving frescoes have been received as a school of Gareja and are considered the most significant works of medieval painting of Georgia considered.
With the resulting portraits of the frescoes significant people from the Georgian history were preserved pictorially, such as Dawit IV the Builder, Queen Tamara, Demetre I, Georgi III. and others. In some cases, these are the only surviving images Georgian rulers.