Gergeti
Gergeti Trinity Church
Gergeti, a 14th-century Georgian architectural complex, is located 4 km west of Kazbegi, above the former village of Gergeti (joined the town of Kazbegi in 1966), on the left bank of the Terek River, on one of the branches of the Mount Kazbek.
The Gergeti Trinity Complex, which is surrounded by a wall, includes a church and a bell tower. The church, rectangular in plan, is a cross-domed structure. The dome rests on two free-standing pillars and the walls of the apse of the sanctuary. The apse is set into the plane of the wall. On both sides of it are located the prothesis and the deaconry, and on the second floor there are secret rooms in all four corners of the building. It is lined with neatly polished andesite squares. The proportions are massive, the planes of the facades are divided. The sides of the windows and entrances, the neck of the ten-pointed dome and the two-story bell tower, which is contemporary with the church and forms a single ensemble with it, are adorned with decorations. A meeting room is built on the south wall of the church. For centuries, the Khevi Council of Elders met here to decide on the most important issues of community life.
Gergeti was the main shrine of Khevi and was also the “hiding place for the jewels of Mtskheta”. For a long time, one of the holiest relics of Georgian Christianity, the Cross of Saint Nino, was kept there.
Literature: სანიკიძე თ., გერგეტის ხუროთმოძღვრული ანსამბლი, თბ., 1975.
T. Sanikidze
J. Gvasalia
