Ancha monastery
Ancha ( Georgian ანჩის მონასტერი anchis monasteri ) was a medieval Georgian monastery and the cathedral of the Bishop of Ancha. It is now located in the village of Anaçlı in Artvin Province in Turkey .
The former cross-domed church is now completely in ruins.
The earliest written mention of the monastery of Ancha comes from around 951 in the Vitae of Gregory of Chandsta by Giorgi Merchule , who dates the church to the early 9th century. It was one of the most important religious and cultural centers of the Principality of Klardschetien , which was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the 1550s . The church was abandoned in the middle of the 17th century. Their surviving Christian relics, such as the icon of the protector , were transferred to the Georgian capital Tbilisi . Shortly after Russia came to power in the Artvin region , the historic Georgian churches and monasteries were visited by Georgian scholar Dimitri Bakradze , who reported on the severe damage in Ankha. In 1904 Nicholas Marr reported that only a small part of the north-west and north walls and an altar apse with a fragment of a dome survived.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Russian : Анчийская епархия ( Ancha Eparchy ). In: «Православная энциклопедия» (2001), Т. 3, С. 14-15 ( Orthodox Encyclopedia , 2001, Vol. 3, pp. 14-15) [online version]
- ↑ a b Wachtang Djobadze: Early Medieval Georgian Monasteries in Historic Tao, Klardjetʿi and Šavšetʿi. (Research on the history of art and Christian archeology, XVII). Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-515-05624-6 , pp. 54-56