The Church of the Theotokos of Vale ( ka, ვალეს ღვთისმშობლის ეკლესია, ''vales ghvtismshoblis eklesia'') is a medieval

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

church at the town of

Vale A vale is a type of valley. Vale may also refer to: Places Georgia * Vale, Georgia, a town in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region Norway * Våle, a historic municipality Portugal * Vale (Santa Maria da Feira), a former civil parish in the municipali ...

in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region in the south of

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 ...

, built in honor of the

Theotokos ''Theotokos'' (Greek: ) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are ''Dei Genitrix'' or ''Deipara'' (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"). Familiar English translations are " ...

(

St. Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

History

The extant edifice is a 16th-century monument, a three-

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

, a result of remodeling of an earlier, late-10th-century

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

d church, of which parts of lavish decor such as relief sculptures of laymen, clergy, and equestrian saints as well as cornices and window frames survive. The naves are separated by two pairs of arches. A bell-tower on the roof is an 18th or 19th-century addition. A 16th-century Georgian inscription on the pylon in

asomtavruli The Georgian scripts are the three writing systems used to write the Georgian language: #Asomtavruli, Asomtavruli, #Nuskhuri, Nuskhuri and #Mkhedruli, Mkhedruli. Although the systems differ in appearance, their Letter (alphabet), letters share t ...

script reveals that the church was built de novo in 1561-1564 by

Dedisimedi Dedisimedi ( ka, დედისიმედი; died ) was a Georgian noblewoman of the House of Mukhrani, a collateral branch of the royal Bagrationi dynasty. She was princess consort of Samtskhe as wife of Kaikhosro II Jaqeli ( r. 1545–1573) an ...

, princess-consort of the

Principality of Samtskhe The Samtskhe-Saatabago or Samtskhe Atabegate ( ka, სამცხე-საათაბაგო), also called the Principality of Samtskhe (სამცხის სამთავრო), was a Georgian feudal principality in Zemo Kartli, ru ...

, of which Vale was part.Закарая, П. (1983) Памятники Восточной Грузии. Искусство, Москва, 376 с. akaraya, P. Monuments of Eastern GeorgiaIn Russian) The church has three entrances and windows at each side. The facades are clad with ashlars, originally remaining on the western and eastern walls. Decorations are found above each window of the eastern facade, and around the entrances. The western portal is framed with columns and arches. Its

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; from it, architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον ''epistylon'' "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can ...

stones presumably depict St. George and St. Demetrius, with ornamentation above them. The tympanum of the southern entrance contains

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

of the

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, names and titles), was ...

with presumably the donator. Above them, depictions of equestrians and women. The northern facade has a relief with

lions The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adult ...

. Numerous reliefs with animals and angels can also be found on the

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

References

{{Georgian Churches Churches in Georgia (country) Buildings and structures in Samtskhe–Javakheti Immovable Cultural Monuments of National Significance of Georgia