Aghaiani church of Saint Nino ( ka, აღაიანის ნინოწმინდის ეკლესია, tr) is an early medieval

Georgian Orthodox The Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს სამოციქულო ავტოკეფალური მართლმადიდებელი ეკლესია, tr), commonly ...

church on Mount Tkhoti, 2 km southeast of the village of

Aghaiani Aghaiani ( ka, აღაიანი) is a village in Kaspi District, Shida Kartli, Georgia. It is located on Mukhrani plain, on the right bank of the river Ksani, at an altitude of 540 meters. It is 22 kilometers from Kaspi. According to the 20 ...

in the

Kaspi Municipality Kaspi ( ka, კასპის მუნიციპალიტეტი) is a district of Georgia, in the region of Shida Kartli. Given a ''District'' status within Transcaucasian SFSR in 1930. District center is Kaspi. Geography The distri ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Shida Kartli Shida Kartli ( ka, შიდა ქართლი, , ; "Inner Kartli") is a landlocked administrative region (''Mkhare'') in eastern Georgia. It comprises a central part of the historical-geographic province of Shida Kartli. With an area of , S ...

region. It stands at the place of one of the three wooden crosses erected—according to historical tradition—at the behest of

Saint Nino Saint Nino ( ka, წმინდა ნინო, tr; hy, Սուրբ Նունե, Surb Nune; el, Αγία Νίνα, Agía Nína; sometimes ''St. Nune'' or ''St. Ninny'') ''Equal to the Apostles and the Enlightener of Georgia'' (c. 296 – c. 33 ...

to mark adoption of Christianity by the people of

Kartli Kartli ( ka, ქართლი ) is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari (Kura), on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial rol ...

. The extant structure is a

hall church A hall church is a church with a nave and aisles of approximately equal height, often united under a single immense roof. The term was invented in the mid-19th century by Wilhelm Lübke, a pioneering German art historian. In contrast to an archi ...

, a 9th–10th-century remodeling of an earlier

cross-in-square A cross-in-square or crossed-dome plan was the dominant architectural form of middle- and late-period Byzantine churches. It featured a square centre with an internal structure shaped like a cross, topped by a dome. The first cross-in-square chu ...

building. The church is inscribed on the list of Georgia's

Immovable Cultural Monuments of National Significance The Immovable Cultural Monuments of National Significance ( ka, ეროვნული მნიშვნელობის კატეგორიის კულტურის უძრავი ძეგლები) are buildings, structures ...

Location

The Aghaiani church tops Mount Tkhoti, 845 m high, on the left bank of the Mtkvari (Kura). According to the medieval Georgian historical tradition, it was on this mount that the sudden darkness engulfed Mirian, a pagan king of Kartli, and the light did not resume until the king invoked "the god of Nino", a female preacher of Christianity. After Mirian's conversion—traditionally dated to 337—Nino had three wooden crosses erected in Kartli, one of them at Tkhoti, two others at Ujarma and Mtskheta, respectively. Later, a church was built in this place.

Layout

The extant edifice, built of stone and brick, measures 8.48 × 4.18 m. It was originally a cross-in-square structure built in the 7th or 8th century. In the 9th or 10th century, the church was remodeled into a hall church: its cross-like appearance was retained as were a semi-circular apse and the western arm, but the dome was replaced with a barrel vault rested on five arches and the northern and southern arms were built up. The entrances are on the north and west. The interior is lit with two windows, one in the apse and the other in the southern wall. The central bay is covered with a

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

, while the northern and southern projections have pent roofs. An arched

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral ( ...

was annexed to the southern façade in the 16th century. The church was repaired in 2007. The sanctuary walls bear surviving fragments of frescoes and inscriptions. The paintings are stylistically dated to the end of the 10th or the beginning of the 11th century. On the eastern façade, a keystone of window arch bears three sculpted crosses. The southern façade boasts an inscription in the medieval Georgian ''

asomtavruli The Georgian scripts are the three writing systems used to write the Georgian language: Asomtavruli, Nuskhuri and Mkhedruli. Although the systems differ in appearance, their letters share the same names and alphabetical order and are written h ...

'' script, arranged in three lines.

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in Shida Kartli Immovable Cultural Monuments of National Significance of Georgia Georgian Orthodox churches in Georgia (country) 7th-century churches in Georgia (country) 8th-century churches in Georgia (country)