ქუმის წმ. გიორგის ეკლესია
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Date
2024
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ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტის გამომცემლობა
Abstract
St. George's Church of Qumi (the same as Qomi or Khomi) in historical
province of Georgia – Samtskhe – is located about 15 km from Akhaltsikhe, in vicinity of the modern village Sviri and historical settlement Tornisi.
Fragments of the building reached us in the form of ruins. Around the church, there are architectural details and stones, adorned with ornaments. The local population refers to this territory by the toponym Qomi/Khoma/Qumi, the entire valley is known by the same name. The church seems to be built in high Middle Ages. Traces of monastic buildings can be clearly observed around the church. The main building of monastery complex is a two-nave church, it consists of the main nave and a smaller nave adjacent to it from the north. In addition, the building has a trapezoidal outbuilding on the northern facade, another one – a small chapel – was attached to the southern facade. The main nave of the church is connected to the small northern nave by a two-arched passage. The main nave is quite wide and tall. The external structure on the western facade is relatively well preserved. Here, the portal of the entrance door is decorated with braided carving, a decorative cross above the door and a ornaments of window frame are still visible.
Qumi church is a sample of two-nave churches, which is not very common for medieval Georgia (there are some 20 samples preserved until nowadays). In most of the structures, the main and side naves are separated from each other by one pillar and two arches. Many Georgian scientists made the great contribution to the study of this rather rare architectural type, although the Qumi Church is not mentioned in these works, and thus, its analysis and interpretation becomes even more relevant for us. The purpose of our article is to specify the date of construction of the Qumi Church and give it a place in the evolutionary scheme of the architectural type of Georgian twonave
churches. Buildings of this type are quite common in Samtskhe-Javakheti, and
most of them belong to the 10th century. In such churches, the side nave is
sometimes shorter than the main nave, sometimes it is a wide, well-lit,
independent space with artistic significance, and sometimes it has the
appearance of a narrow, dark corridor and seems to be an addition to the main
nave. The side nave usually has an apse, but sometimes it ends with a straight wall from the east. In almost all cases, the both naves have a separate roof: a high roof with pediment for the central one and a low, shed roof for the side one. In more complicated architectural compositions, where a stoa or an outbuilding is added to the church, this lower segment also has a separate roof.
In the case of the Qumi Church, the difference between the heights of the
naves is significant. The semicircle of the apse in the two-nave churches is
almost always inside in the right angle of the plan, and so it is in the case of
the Qumi Church too. Arrangement of side-rooms of the altar in two-nave churches is very difficult due to the peculiarity of the plan. In this type of buildings, only one side-room can be arranged – on the opposite side of the small nave. In our case, there are no side-rooms at all, as in a many other two-nave chruches, built during the 10th century in Georgia.
The peculiarity of the Qumi Church is the fact that, unlike most twonave
churches, where the two arches separating the naves are quite wide and
the openings occupy almost the entire length of the longitudinal wall, here the openings are narrow and low and occupy only the eastern section of the wall, in front of the apse. Some other 10th century two-nave churches (e.g. Gharta, Kilda and Sakvirike in Samtskhe-Javakheri region) give us an example of the isolation of the side nave too, but nowhere are the arches so small compared to the overall dimensions of the building, as in the church of Qumi. Another peculiarity of the Qumi Church is an asymmetrical apse – its northern corner is open: here is located the arch, and a column is posted symmetrically to southern pillar of the apse.
Based on the architectural features, the closest parallels to the Qumi
Church seem to be the two-nave churches of Kilda, Dviri, Sakvirike and
Dankali, which are also geographically located close to it. Most of these twonave churces were built during the 10th century, more likely – in the middle of the century. The church of Qumi should belong to the same era.
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https://geohistory.humanities.tsu.ge/ge/procedings/83-shromebi/179-shromebi-20.html
ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტის ჰუმანიტარულ მეცნიერებათა ფაკულტეტის საქართველოს ისტორიის ინსტიტუტის შრომები შესულია ERIH PLUS-ში (The European Reference Index for the Humanities and the Social Sciences) / This journal was approved on 23.10.2024 according to ERIH PLUS criteria for inclusion
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ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტის საქართველოს ისტორიის ინსტიტუტის შრომები, XX, თბილისი, 2024, გვ. 53-66 / Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University Institute of Georgian History Proceedings, XX, Tbilisi, 2024, p. 53-66