The Likhauri Church is a

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

at the

Ozurgeti Municipality Ozurgeti ( ka, ოზურგეთის მუნიციპალიტეტი, ''Ozurgetis munitsipalit'et'i'') is a municipality of Georgia, in the region of Guria. Its main town is Ozurgeti. Ozurgeti municipality is located on the terri ...

in the

Guria Guria ( ka, გურია) is a region (''mkhare'') in Georgia, in the western part of the country, bordered by the eastern end of the Black Sea. The region has a population of 113,000 (2016), with Ozurgeti as the regional capital. Geography ...

region,

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 ...

. It was built in the 12th century.

History

The Likhauri church was built in 1352 by the Kajaberi dynasty of Guria. The church is located in the center of the town of

Likhauri Likhauri ( ka, ლიხაური) is a village in the Ozurgeti district of Guria in western Georgia. References * Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia'' ( ka, ქართული საბჭოთა ენც ...

. Near the church there is an independent

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

that, like the church, is made of

carved stone Stone carving is an activity where pieces of rough natural stone are shaped by the controlled removal of stone. Owing to the permanence of the material, stone work has survived which was created during our prehistory or past time. Work carried ...

. On one of the walls of the bell tower there is an inscription in

Georgian language Georgian (, , ) is the most widely-spoken Kartvelian language, and serves as the literary language or lingua franca for speakers of related languages. It is the official language of Georgia and the native or primary language of 87.6% of its p ...

. On the eastern wall of the church there is a window richly decorated with Georgian ornaments, and on the western wall is a portal. The south facade was restored with stone and bricks. The rehabilitation works were carried out by the patronage of Gorje IV Gurieli and Queen Khvaremze. In 2010, a reinforced concrete wall was built on the territory of the Likhauri church to protect the monument in a natural event.

Restoration

The church was painted entirely with

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

paintings, its execution dates back to the 15th and 16th centuries. The murals of Likhura were torn off in the first half of the 1990s when the church was painted again. Its heavily damaged fragments are stored in the Tbilisi Academy of Art and granted the status of cultural heritage object.Order No. 03/198 of the Minister of Culture for the Protection of Monuments of Georgia, November 4, 2013
/ref> Of the paintings, only two remain in the temple.

Bibliography

* Tavadze G. More attention to the cultural monuments of Guria, "The friend of the monument", X-XI, 1967 * Dimitri Bakradze, "Archaeological trip in Guria and Adjara" - Batumi, "Soviet Adjara", 1987 * Tea Kartvelishvili, "Guria Episcopacies" pp. 66-69 - "ARRANUJI", Tbilisi, 2006

References

{{Authority control Georgian Orthodox Church Immovable Cultural Monuments of National Significance of Georgia