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| source: dic.academic.ru |
In Tbilisi there are many historical monuments, the age of which has exceeded a thousand years, but the oldest is considered Anchiskhati - Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. According to studies, it was built in the first half of the VI century on the order of King Dachi. The name Anchiskhati received in the XVII century, thanks to the icons of the city Anchi (Turkey), once belonged to the Georgian kings. The name of the church is translated as "icon of Anchi”.
In the temple Anchiskhati one can see the icon of the XIX century and the altarpiece, created in 1683. And the icon, which gave the name of this church, for more than hundred years is stored in the Tbilisi Museum of Art.
In its architecture, the church is the basilica, which also shows the age of construction - the early Christian churches were built precisely in the form of a basilica. For centuries Anchiskhati was destroyed and rebuilt again. Significant changes in the structure occurred in the XV-XVII centuries, when Georgia was at war with the Turks and Persians. And in 1675 the double-deck belfry was built in the Persian style, which was complementary to the oldest church in Tbilisi.
At the end of XIX century the design of Anchiskhati was greatly altered, there was added another set. During the Soviet period the church was converted into a museum then it housed the art workshop. In the 1960's there was a large-scale reconstruction of the temple, which has returned the face of the XVII century. In 1989, it again became an operating temple of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
