The Gantiadi Church or Tsandripshi Church ( ka, განთიადის ტაძარი, ab, Ганҭиади иҟоу аныхабаа) is a 6th-century three-apse basilica, located in settlement of

Gantiadi Gantiadi ( ka, განთიადი ; russian: Гантиади) or Tsandryphsh ( ab, Цандрыҧшь; russian: Цандрыпш), is an urban-type settlement on the Black Sea coast in Georgia, in the Gagra District of Abkhazia, 5 km f ...

(

Gagra District Gagra District is a district of Abkhazia. It corresponds to the Georgian district by the same name. In medieval times, it was known as the southern part of Sadzen. It is located in the western part of Abkhazia, and the river Psou serves as a bor ...

) in

Abkhazia Abkhazia, ka, აფხაზეთი, tr, , xmf, აბჟუა, abzhua, or ( or ), officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, recognised by most countries as part of Georgia, which vi ...

.Church in (Tsandriphshi) Gantiadi settlement
Historical monuments of Abkhazia — Government of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia.

History

Church was built in 543 AD by the

Byzantine Emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as le ...

Justinian I Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...

(527-565) when Abazg tribes has been Christianized. Church building was altered several times in 8-10th centuries. In 1576 it was partly destroyed by Ottoman invaders. It is one of the oldest Christian temples in the

Western Caucasus The Western Caucasus is a western region of the Caucasus in Southern Russia, extending from the Black Sea to Mount Elbrus. World Heritage Site The Western Caucasus includes a natural UNESCO World Heritage Site comprising the extreme western e ...

. Nowadays only the ruins of the basilica are left standing. In the ruins of the Basilica was found a fragment of the tombstone with the Greek uncial inscription. It seems most likely that the inscription belonged to the tomb of a clerical or secular dignitary of Abkhazia. Name of the buried is lost. The inscription is dated back to the 6th c. The church is a three-nave basilica, built of medium-size limestone Quadra of regular shape and flat brick of varied sizes. Tsandripshi church has been given the status of national importance monument.

References

Literature

*''V. Jaoshvili, R. Rcheulishvili'',

Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia'' ( ka, ქართული საბჭოთა ენციკლოპედია, ქსე) is the first universal encyclopedia in the Georgian language, printed in Tbilisi from 1965, the editor in chi ...

, V. 2, p. 680, Tb., 1977 year. * Cultural Heritage in Abkhazia, Tbilisi, 2015 Churches in Abkhazia Temples in Gagra Municipality 6th-century churches Immovable Cultural Monuments of National Significance of Georgia {{georgia-EO-church-stub