Dörtkilise
Dörtkilise ( Turkish , "four churches"), Georgian ოთხთა ეკლესია, Otchta Eklesia ("Church of the Four"), is a former Georgian monastery church from the 10th century in northeastern Turkey . The well-preserved ruin, along with other architectural monuments in the remote mountain region south of the Kaçkar Dağları, belonged to the medieval Georgian kingdom of Tao-Klardschetien .
location
Coordinates: 40 ° 48 ′ 51 ″ N , 41 ° 28 ′ 16 ″ E
The church stands at an altitude of 1350 meters on a knoll of the wooded and water-rich southern foothills of the Kaçkar Dağı . At over 3,900 meters, this is the highest peak in the mountain range that runs parallel to the coast of the Black Sea . Dörtkilise can be reached from the road in the Çoruh valley that connects İspir with Yusufeli . The junction is located in the settlement of the same name on the river bank seven kilometers southwest of Yusufeli. From here a road leads in a side valley along a stream for another seven kilometers into the mountains. Walnut trees, peaches, grapes, pumpkins and other vegetables thrive between the lush green cow meadows in the valley, even in midsummer. The church can hardly be seen uphill as it is hidden behind trees directly above the path. One kilometer after the church, a scattered settlement begins with homesteads where cattle are kept. The steep mountain valleys with fertile soils throughout the region receive abundant rainfall, which is why the villages have always been relatively large and prosperous throughout history. To date, many of the villagers are of Georgian descent.
history
In the 9th and 10th centuries, numerous churches and monasteries were built in Tao-Klardschetien, which was the only Georgian Christian area outside the Arab sphere of influence, before it was united with three other principalities to form the Kingdom of Georgia at the end of the 10th century . Dörtkilise is one of the few churches standing free in the landscape, most of them are in or on the outskirts of villages, some have been rededicated as mosques.
General characteristics of Georgian churches are their relatively simple, but impressively high construction and blind arcades around the windows on the outer walls. The floor plan of the nave is combined with that of a cross- domed church , the dome of which is raised above the chancel by a windowed drum . Forerunners of this design are Georgian basilicas from the 6th century, which were enlarged and massively increased around the 10th century.
Dörtkilise is mentioned for the first time under the name " Laura with the four churches" in the 10th century in a biography of saints. The building is believed to have existed before the reign of David III. , David the Great (reigned 961–1000) or - according to inscriptions that refer to David - were built with stone and brick walls in the 960s, more precisely between 961 and 965; the current appearance of the stone block walls comes from later renovations.
Besides Dörtkilise, the best-preserved Georgian churches in the region are Öşk Vank , Haho , İşhan and Barhal ; the latter is a little later, almost unadorned replica of the Dörtkilise.
Design
The outer walls of the three-aisled basilica are carefully assembled from yellow-brown sandstone blocks. The building with a floor area of 28.5 × 18.6 meters rises on a two-tiered base and is well preserved, apart from a few gaps in the roof and worn decorative shapes on the outside walls. Some stones on the north and south outer walls disappeared during looting. There was an entrance in the north, south and west walls. Today the building is open and empty inside, the floor is raised to varying degrees by rubble. It was originally laid out with square stone slabs. According to the name, there must have been three other church buildings in the neighborhood. Of these, only the ruins of a single-nave chapel in the southeast have been preserved.
The longitudinal walls and the upper arcades are structured by rows of 1.85 meter wide blind niche arcades. The height of the two gable ends is determined by the roof pitch. The east facade is broken up by eleven arched windows on two floors and three round windows at the top of the roof gable. The only large window, 2.16 meters high and 1.08 meters wide, is in the middle of the apse . The blind arches on the upper storeys rest on coupled pairs of round columns that are rotated against each other, and the bulges above are just as spiral. The massive structure gets its elegance from the corresponding, evenly arranged arcades on both floors. The disproportionate height of 22 meters can only be seen on the gable walls and inside the central nave. From the original roofing, some clay slabs inlaid in cement have survived.
The vault of the three aisles are carried by massive pillars pairs across transverse arches are joined together. Of the five bays in the longitudinal direction, the three rear bays are the same, the second bay, seen from the chancel, has been widened significantly at the expense of the first pillar space, which is lower than the others and appears compressed. This first pair of pillars is therefore no longer in line with the belt arches in the outer vaults. The widening was probably carried out during the construction period in order to emphasize the space in front of the chancel with the spatial impression of a transept. The gallery on the sides of the nave used to be accessible directly from the outside through a 2.1 meter high and one meter wide door on the west side (in the third arch field from the north). The door is three meters above today's floor level, there was probably a wooden ladder upstairs in the past.
The semicircular central apse within the straight east wall is laterally surrounded by rectangular side rooms ( pastophoria ), which are only accessible via the side aisles. The upper floors are connected to the side aisles by two slender arched windows and receive sparse light through two small windows in the east wall.
On the apse, frescoes in poor condition can be seen, which fill the entire wall surface in five zones one above the other. They were installed in the early 960s, that is, during the construction period. The scenes in the two lower zones, in which the life of Jesus was depicted, are difficult to recognize. The third, best preserved area at the height of the single apse window shows the praying Mother Mary flanked by angels in the middle , John the Baptist on the right and apostles on both sides holding books or scrolls . In the arched reveal above the window is a medallion with the bust of a woman against a blue background, who is holding a model of the church in the crook of her left arm. It is probably St. Nino , who is venerated as the first Christian woman in Georgia. The right side of the window reveal shows Moses receiving the tablets of the law from the hand of God , while he turns his face away from God. On the left, the priest Melchizedech from Jerusalem greets Abraham with a tray in his hands to hand over bread and wine. The Eucharist is symbolized with what is offered .
In the zone above, larger than life prophets and church fathers stand in a row, whose identities can no longer be determined with the exception of two. The two outer figures are Solomon on the right and David on the left. As a young man, Solomon is shown raising his right hand to heaven. The figures in the uppermost zone are destroyed in their lower half. Among other things, a crucifixion , the angel in front of Jesus' empty grave and Jesus as he appears in the olive garden of Gethsemane can be recognized . The overall program rolled out around the salvation history of Jesus is extraordinarily comprehensive.
With the west side of the church since the time of David III. an elongated porch connected to the church via a room serving as a narthex , but there was no connecting door between this room and the porch. The elongated building of 17 × 5.5 meters only opened on its narrow northern side to another 13 × 20.8 meter building in the northwest, which was once covered by two barrel vaults above a row of pillars. The large building was probably the refectory (dining room) of the monastery, the narrow one is called the scriptorium (writing room) . Hardly any remains of both buildings have survived.
In contrast, the outer walls of a small burial chapel still stand 6.5 meters from the south-east corner of the church. This was two-story, covered by a barrel vault and measured on the outside 10.2 × 6.55 meters. The entrance was probably in the west, a round apse closed the room in the east.
As is usual with the monasteries, there were also associated outbuildings in the vicinity. One kilometer to the north, on the left side of the brook, the small remains of a 5.5 × 3.5 meter chapel, consisting of a room with a barrel vault, were found. In the west on the other side of the brook stood an 11 × 6.5 meter stone house, which had probably served as monks' accommodation. It's almost completely gone.
literature
- Wachtang Djobadze: Early Medieval Georgian Monasteries in Historic Tao, Klardjetʿi and Šavšetʿi. (Research on art history and Christian archeology, XVII) Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1992, pp. 158–174
- Volker Eid : East Turkey. Peoples and cultures between Taurus and Ararat . DuMont, Cologne 1990, pp. 193-195, ISBN 3-7701-1455-8
- Vera and Hellmut Hell: Turkey. Northern Turkey, Eastern Turkey, Southeast Turkey. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart a. a., 3rd ed. 1988, p. 101
- Thomas Alexander Sinclair: Eastern Turkey: An Architectural and Archaeological Survey. Vol. II. The Pindar Press, London 1989, pp. 15f
Web links
- There Kilise Manastırı. choruh.com (Turkish)