Metekhi

The Metekhi (Georgian მეტეხის ეკლესია ) is a Georgian Orthodox church in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. It was built in 13th century by King Dimitri II and stands on the site of the former residence of the Georgian kings over the steep banks of the Kura River.

The church stands on the earliest settlement area of Tbilisi. The place on the rock was considered a particularly safe. The church was destroyed in 1235 by Mongol invaders in 1289 and rebuilt. Your name comes from a battle, King Vakhtang I. Gorgassalis, is said to have exclaimed at this point in the 5th century: Ak me mteri wteche ( dt Here, I have slain the enemy ). It should have become, over the centuries the church name.

The 24.5 meter high late medieval cross-domed church stands on an area of ​​20 × 16 meters. Its original form is preserved. In the 17th and 18th century, the dome, the drum, the barrel vault and various parts of the façade were restored with bricks. To the west of the church, the building was supplemented by a gallery.

In the church is the grave of the Holy Shushanik, a noblewoman who was the wife of the ruler of Georgia in the 5th century and refused to renounce Christianity, convert to Zoroastrianism to the Persian conquerors. She died in prison, and is worshiped by the Georgian Orthodox Church of the Apostles as a martyr.

In the Soviet Union the Metekhi was expropriated and used worldly. She served a youth theater stage. In 1988, the building was returned to the Orthodox Church. The dissident Zviad Gamsakhurdia and later Georgian president was on a hunger strike for the return of the sacred building.

1967 at the church a memorial to King Vakhtang I Gorgasali was built as equestrian monument to the founder of Tbilisi. It originates from the Georgian sculptor Elgudscha Amashukeli, who also designed the monumental statue Kartlis Deda in Tbilisi.