Ilori Church - History and Current Challanges

Abstract

This thesis is dedicated to the church of St. George of Ilori, located in occupied Abkhazia. It was built in the first half of the 11th century. This is pilgrim type and single-nave building, which has annexes from three sides made in different times. The church underwent inexcusable restoration, that changed its authentic form. We were able to visit the church in 2018, that helped us in research. The aim of the thesis is the study of Ilori Church, the devision and characterizing of layers made in different times and establishing the qualitativeness of the current restorations. The church is important in many ways. It represented significant centre of Christianity for centuries.

It has architectural and artistic values and is also distinguished with its lapidary inscriptions on eastern fasade. The restoration under the occupation of Russia should also be investigated. The only monograph “Илори (памятник ХI века)”, about Ilori church is written by Anatoli Katsia. On the basis of décor and the inscriptions on the south part of the church he says that the church dates back to 11th century. Rest part of monograph is the description, however, it gives enough information to analyze the state of the church chronologically. The abstract is dedicated to the aims and the actuality of the topic of the thesis. In the following part there is the discussion about the literature, such as articles in which the state of the church in the particular time is described and the researches, that are connected to the the church of Ilori.

In the first chapter the historical review about the centres of Christianity in Abkhazia is given, alongside with some important details of the history of Georgia in 10th-11th century that determined unification of Georgia. In the second chapter the history of the church of Ilori and the historical and artistic improtance is discussed. The legends and believes connected to the ancient shrine of Ilori is reviewed. The inscriptions in the church written in all three Georgian writing systems, is examined in another chapter. On the bases of the comparison of old drawings and photoes to the new ones established the alterations under occupation: The broaden and largen of western annexe, the installation of Russian dome.

These modifications violated characteristic proportions of the Georgian Churches in the Middle Ages. The foreign form of the dome together with other alterations changed the authentic form of the church.

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