Betania Monastery
The Betania Monastery of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a monument of Georgian architecture. It was built in the middle of the 12th century. It is located 16 km southwest of Tbilisi, on the right side of the River Vere.
The monastery is one of the most remarkable monuments of its time. It stands in the place of an older, brick church. It belongs to the group of domed churches in Kartli, in which the canonical form of the Georgian domed church was finally developed: the plan became even shorter and similar to a square, only two separate pillars remained instead of four, the pair of eastern columns merged with the walls of the sanctuary. The proportions of the building were lowered, and the neck of the dome was lengthened and stood like a tower. Arches are no longer among the elements of facade decoration. Here, individual ornaments (carvings clustered around the windows) contrast with the smooth surface of the wall.
Betania Monastery is covered with cut stone from the outside. The brick layer of the walls and dome dates back to the restoration of the monastery at the end of the 19th century. The twelve windows in the dome are decorated with carved lintels. In front of the southern entrance is a gate.
The wall painting has been preserved in the church. In the conch of the sanctuary there was a scene of Supplication (fragments of the image of Christ sitting on the throne have been preserved). There were frescos of prophets, apostles on the wall of the sanctuary. The northern wall is dedicated to the painting of a cycle of the Passion of the Christ while the southern wall contains the scenes from the Old Testament. The paintings on the western wall depict the Last Judgment, it has been only partially preserved.
The north wall of the monastery has frescoes of Georgian historical figures — George III, Queen Tamar, George IV, and the south wall has the portrait of Sumbat Orbeli with his son.
The long-abandoned and forgotten monastery was rediscovered in the middle of the 19th century and restored at the end of the same century. To the west of the monastery stands a small single-nave church covered with beautifully carved cut stone, which, according to the inscription, was built in 1196.
Literature: ა მ ი რ ა ნ ა შ ვ ი ლ ი შ., ქარული ხელოვნების ისტორია, თბ., 1971; ბ ე რ ი ძ ე ვ., ძველი ქართული ხუროთმოძღვრება, თბ., 1974; ს ი ლ ო გ ა ვ ა ვ., ბეთანიის წარწერები, თბ., 1994; ც ი ც ი შ ვ ი ლ ი ი., ქართული არქიტექტურის ისტორია, თბ., 1955; А л и б е г а ш в и л и Г. В., Четыре портрета царицы Тамары, Тб., 1957; П р и в а л о в а Е., Новы данные о Бетании; IV Международный симпозиум по грузинскому искусству, Тб., 1983.
E. Privalova
Sh. Sagharadze
