Metechi Church, Tbilisi
Built in 1289, the Metechi church remains one of Tbilisi’s major landmarks. To some extent it mirrors Georgia’s turbulent history having been destroyed a few times. Under Tsarist rule it was used as a jail and in soviet times a theatre.
In 2000 I wrote and published a guide to Tbilisi. This is the excerpt about the Metechi Church.
The Metechi Church that rests upon the top of the cliff over looking the Mtkvari River. The statue adjacent to the church is of the city’s founder king Vakhtang Gorgasali. It was designed by Elguja Amashukeli in 1958 to mark the 1,500 anniversary of the capital. King Vakhtang Gorgasali commissioned one of the very first Christian churches in Tbilisi to be built here. The Metechi Church of today was built in 1289 under the orders of Demetre II (the Devoted). King Demetre ruled Eastern Georgia at the time when the Mongols controlled the country. By careful alliance with the Mongol il-Khan overlords, he was able to restore some of the privileges that the Georgian Church had lost when the Mongols first invaded. However in the internecine struggles between the Mongols, Demetre backed the wrong side, but to protect his capital from invasion and destruction he agreed to surrender and be executed.
Before Demetre ordered the church to be built, this site was both religious and royal. David the Builder had his royal palace here and this is also where Queen Tamar married her second husband David Soslan. Both the palace and original church were destroyed during the Mongol’s invasion in 1235. The palace was rebuilt some years after the church, the latter being for a long period the royal chapel. It is believed that some of the stones used to build the thirteenth century church were those of the earlier church dating from the fifth century. In the seventeenth century the church was again partially destroyed by the Turks. During Erekle II’s reign in 1748 the church was repaired to its former glory, only to be destroyed once again along with the palace during Shah Agha Mohammed Khan’s destruction of Tbilisi in 1795. Under Russian rule the site was the home of the infamous Metechi Jail. This was removed in 1937. In the latter part of the Soviet period the church lost its religious purpose and was used as a theatre. However with independence for the country as a whole, the Metechi church has rightly regained its religious nature.
The Metechi is a cross in square church made of both brick and dressed stone. The eastern part of the church has three projecting apses, a feature somewhat uncommon for its period. The brick dome was built in 1748 under the guidance of Erekle II. The façade is generally smooth. The most decorative part is in the eastern apses around the windows. Unfortunately the period of Russification in the nineteenth century has left the walls white-washed. It is believed there are some interesting frescoes beneath. The icons that are dotted throughout the church are all Georgian orthodox. On the far wall from the entrance is an imposing copy of a fresco of Queen Tamar.
In a small side chapel to the right of the altar is the tomb of Saint Shushanik. The Martyrdom of Saint Shushanik remains the oldest surviving work of Georgian literature. The narrative was composed between the years 476 and 483 by Jacob of Tsurtaveli and is remarkable for its directness of language. It recounts the story of Shushanik who refused to submit to her husband’s order to convert to Zoroastrianism. He beat her and locked her in a cell on this site but she never lost her Christian faith. It could be argued and has been that Saint Shushanik was an early example of feminism in Georgia. Still today many Armenian girls – for Shushanik was an ethnic Armenian – are named after this saint beloved of both the Georgians and Armenians.
