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Bolnisi Sioni

Orthodox Christian basilica in Bolnisi, Georgia

Summary

Orthodox Christian basilica in Bolnisi, Georgia

Field	Value
building_name	Bolnisi Sioni
ბოლნისის სიონი
image	Bolnisi Sioni Cathedral.jpg
image_size	275px
caption	Bolnisi Sioni Cathedral
map_type	Georgia#Georgia Kvemo Kartli
map_size	275
location	Bolnisi, Kvemo Kartli Province (Mkhare), Georgia
coordinates
religious_affiliation	Georgian Orthodox Church
architecture	yes
architecture_style	Georgian
year_completed	478–493
specifications	yes

ბოლნისის სიონი

Bolnisi Sioni (ბოლნისის სიონი) or Bolnisi Sioni Cathedral is a Georgian Orthodox basilica in the Bolnisi village of Bolnisi District, Georgia. The cathedral was built in 478–493. It is the oldest extant church building in Georgia.

Bolnisi Sioni Cathedral is known for the Bolnisi inscriptions in Georgian. These are one of the oldest historical documents of the Georgian alphabet. This church is the first Georgian building to have a completion date on the exterior. Bolnisi Sioni’s decorative scheme was a Sasanian style. The southern and central parts of the church are adorned with curling vine scrolls, arabesques, and foliate motifs. Uniform masonry blocks were used to build on to the original building’s Late Antiquity remnants on the southern façade.

The country of Georgia was in contact with Persia during the time of Bolnisi Sioni’s construction. Evidence of this is in the decoration of the building. The sculpture and embellishments of Bolnisi Sioni and other surrounding Georgian churches are influenced from Iranian, Armenian, and Near Eastern art and architecture.

File:Болнисская Колокольня2.jpg |Bolnisi Sioni bell-tower. File:Bolnisi Sioni church.Facade (Photo by A.Muhranoff, 2010).jpg|Church façade and exterior portal. File:Inscription of Bolnisis Sioni (2).jpg|Early inscription File:The interior of Bolnisi Sioni.jpg|Interior of Bolnisi Sioni.

Bibliography

V. Beridze, Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia, 2, Tbilisi, 1977, p. 454
Sh. Amiranashvili, History of Georgian Art, Tbilisi, 1971, pp. 113–118
V. Beridze, Bolnisi Sioni // fresco, No. 2, 1968, pp. 23–25

References

Rapp, Stephen H. (2003), Studies in Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts And Eurasian Contexts, p. 316. Peeters Bvba, {{ISBN. 90-429-1318-5
(1997). "Encyclopedia "Georgia"".
(1999). "Sociolinguistic aspects of the development of Georgian". Working Papers.
(2009). "The Iranian heritage of Georgia: Breathing new life into the pre-Bagratid historiographical tradition". Iranica Antiqua.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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