Svetitskhoveli Cathedral is one of the oldest Christian Cathedrals in Georgia. It was built in a sacred place – junction of Mtkvari and Aragvi rivers, near Mtskheta, the capital of ancient Iberia.
GPS coordinates for Garmin/Navitel: N41.8422971, E44.7210488
The legend says that young Elioz, the witness of Christ’s crucifixion, bought part of Messiah’s robe and brought it to Georgia in the first century. His sister, Sidonia, asked him to bring something sacred from the Holy Land. But at the moment Sidonia touched the robe, she felt all the pain that Jesus suffered, so she fell down dead. No one could get the robe out of her dead hands, so she was buried with it. Miraculous cedar grown up on her grave.
Three hundred years later Saint Nino brought Christianity into Georgia. Georgian King, Mirian III, built wooden Church above the grave. The columns of the Church were made of that cedar. No one could stump the tree stub, so it was left inside of the Church. Some time later the stub started pouring myrrh. Lots of people were coming to that place in search of healing. That’s why that stub was named “Svetitskhoveli”, in Georgian it means “The Living Pillar”.
In 5th century, the wooden Church was destroyed and a stone Church was built on the same place. The remains of that old Church can still be observed through the glass windows in the floor of modern Cathedral building.
The Pillar is also still there. It surrounds the remains of the stub in order to save it from millions of people willing to take a sacred piece of wood with themselves. There is believing that the wish made near the Pillar should certainly come true. We’re checking this theory now 🙂
In the south part of the Cathedral, there is a small stone church built inside. It is a symbolic copy of the Chapel of Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It was built in 14th century to mark that Svetitskhoveli is the second most sacred place in the world (after the Church of Jerusalem) thanks to the Christ’s robe.
Flights to Tbilisi:
Hotel prices in Tbilisi:
