Dolisqana
| Dolisqana დოლისყანა |
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 View from the southeast. At the top of the drum, heavily damaged donor figure of King Sumbat with a church model |
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| Data | ||
| place | Tao Klardschetia , Turkey | |
| Construction year | around 940 | |
| Coordinates | 41 ° 9 '57 " N , 41 ° 57' 8" E | |
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Dolisqana ( Georgian დოლისყანა ), also Doliskana, Dolishana, Dolishane, Turkish Dolişhane , is a 10th-century former monastery of the medieval Georgian kingdom of Tao-Klardschetien in today's northeast Turkish province of Artvin . In the village of Hamamlıköy, the ruins of a cross-domed church that was used as a mosque until the 1990s have been preserved.
location
Expressway 10, which leads inland from the Black Sea in the Çoruh valley , turns north-east about ten kilometers after Artvin and follows the Berta Suyu (Georgian Imerchewi ), a tributary of the Çoruh, in an increasingly narrow and steeper gorge to Şavşat . The road to the church begins about seven kilometers after the junction and three kilometers before the road crosses a bridge over the Ardanuç Çay (Georgian Artanudschistskali ), which flows into the Berta Suyu here. At this bridge, a side road branches off into the valley of the same name, past the small town of Ardanuç to the ruins of the Georgian monastery of Yeni Rabat .
Since the 1970s, Hamamlıköy has been accessible via a three-kilometer-long, steeply uphill road, which today is paved right down to the last stretch. The few houses in the village are scattered on the slopes of the Imerchewi Mountains (Turkish Imerhevi Deresi ) high above the Berta Suyu valley. You are surrounded by gardens and trees in the otherwise barren rocky landscape. Opposite the church ruins on the east side of the street there is a new mosque with a fountain in front of it. The Imerchewi Mountains represent the southern drop of the Karçal Mountains ( Karçal Dağları ), the highest peak of which reaches a height of 3415 meters just under 20 kilometers north.
All the former Georgian churches in this valley are on the right, northern side of the river. About 20 kilometers further in the direction of Şavşat, after a likewise steep path in a side valley, you first reach Opiza and a few kilometers further in another valley section Chandsta (Porta). The Tbeti Cathedral just before Şavşat ends the series.
history
In both Asian and Georgian church architecture, the central building developed parallel to the basilica since the 4th century . Based on the model of traditional residential buildings ( darbasi ), central buildings were built especially in Georgia from the middle of the 6th century, which later reached a monumental size. Its floor plan in the form of a Greek cross formed the basis of the Georgian church building - also in its symbolic meaning. The dome above the central church space is raised by a windowed drum and the west nave is lengthened by combining it with the floor plan of a nave . The forerunners of this design from the 6th century, as preserved in Georgia, still appear compact. Their broad structure was massively increased in the churches of the 10th century.
From the end of the 8th century, the Bagratid dynasty succeeded in uniting the Georgian principalities. In the 9th and 10th centuries a particularly large number of churches and monasteries were built in Tao-Klardschetien because this area had remained outside the Arab sphere of influence. At the end of the 10th century, Tao-Klardschetien was united with three other principalities to form the Kingdom of Georgia . It was during this time that the monastery was founded along the Imerchewi.
Sumbat Dawitisdze, who was at the beginning of Georgian historiography, reported the army of King Ashot I (ruled around 813 - 826/830 in his work "Das Leben Kartlis", with which he made himself a chronicler of the Bagratid dynasty) in the middle of the 11th century ) stood with Dolisqana in January 826, when his (Arab) enemies maliciously killed him. The representation is doubtful; Aschot probably died elsewhere in 830.
The earliest document in which Dolisqana is mentioned is the hagiography of the monk Giorgi Mertschule from the Chandsta monastery in 951 about the important founder of the monastery Grigol Chandsteli (759-861). Many of the founding of monasteries in southern Georgia from the 9th century and the organization of the monasteries go back to Chandsteli and his students. It is thanks to them that the valley of Berta Suyu became the center of the "Georgian Sinai ". In "The Life of Grigol Chandsteli", Mertschule lists the monasteries built by Chandsteli in the 830s and 840s and adds that Dolisqana later became a monastery. As a result, Dolisqana existed before 951.
The Arab historian al-Masʿūdī (896–956) mentions King Sumbat I († 958) as the founder . Sumbat, who from 954 bore the title Kuropalates (King), as the founder of the monastery speaks a two-line inscription "Christ bless our King Sumbat", which is below a relief portrait on the outside of the drum, which shows the king with a church model in his hands . This would mean completion in the mid-950s.
There is also a portrait on the outer facade of the southern arm of the cross, which, according to an inscription there, can be assigned to a certain deacon Gabriel. The bust probably represents the stone sculptor who was responsible for part of the relief decoration. It is not uncommon in the early history of church building that church fathers also acted as builders. A similar double role played Gabriel's contemporary Serapion von Sarsma , who actively participated in the reconstruction of the Opiza monastery. In the area of the Syrian Dead Cities, the priest Diodorus was involved in the construction of the large church in Dar Qita, dated 418 . Many churches built between 380 and 415 in this area go back to the architect Markianos Kyris, who was himself a priest.
Based on style studies, the sculptural jewelry can be divided into two style groups, which indicate the independent work of two builders. According to Mertschule, the church was built a few years before 951, so King Sumbat had his portrait immortalized in a second construction phase when the economic conditions allowed him to decorate the existing church. For this he may have commissioned the deacon Gabriel and another stonemason, whose name has not been passed down. The first construction phase falls shortly before 945 and was led by an anonymous builder.
The monastery existed until the 14th century, from the end of the 16th century until the 1990s, part of the church was used as a mosque. In the 19th century, all other buildings of the monastery except for the church were destroyed. In 1958 the building was repaired according to its use at the time. Here, the damaged south-east corner was rebuilt and the roof was renewed. Descriptions from the time when the mosque still existed mention an upper room, accessible through a door on the north wall, which served as a prayer room. The frescoes in this upper part of the church are whitewashed. A lower room, accessible from the south, divided by a false ceiling, was used as a haystack. Today the building has been freed from all fixtures and is accessible from the inside.
architecture
The outer walls and dome are quite well preserved. The building stands across the slope and looks squat from the outside, because the north wall has sunk about three meters into the ground due to alluvium during rainfall. The church only reaches its original height at the southern arm of the cross. The walls are bricked up on both sides with rectangular stone blocks of almost the same size with a length of 35 and a height of 25 centimeters in horizontal layers. The mortar joints are one to three centimeters wide. Window and door frames consist of neatly joined and smoothed blocks. The original corrugated clay roof tiles have come off, they have been replaced by a brittle layer of cement mortar.
The floor plan forms a rectangle on the outside, in which a cross shape is inscribed with a western arm extended for the nave ( naos ). The internal dimensions are 15.8 × 11.38 meters. A semicircular apse with a width of 5.3 meters and a depth of 3.5 meters fills the eastern cross arm . The apse is flanked by rectangular, 2.85 × 2.4 meter side rooms ( pastophoria ), which are not connected to it, but are only accessible through doors in the west walls. The west arm in the width of the apse was extended to 6.4 meters. Narrow side rooms with barrel vaults were added to it north and south , the south of which is largely missing today. The southern side room possibly consisted of an open gallery, as in the domed basilicas of the monasteries Haho and Öşk Vank . The assumption is based on two architectural details: the semicircular niche sunk into the narrow eastern side and the design of the tympanum arch above the door to the nave. Both are typical for porticos attached to the side . The purpose of the 2.3 meter wide northwest side room is not entirely clear. Possibly it served as a kitchen and, since clay barrels buried in the ground were discovered, as a wine cellar. Its barrel vault is made of bricks.
The tambour is twelve-sided on the outside and is surmounted by a conical roof on which some of the original monk and nun tiles are still located. 1.8 meter wide, semicircular blind arcades , supported by double columns, structure the sides of the drum. The capitals are structured by palmettes that are split at the top and curved at the bottom , as found in the Zvartnots Cathedral in Armenia, which was built in 644 to 652 . Such capitals can also be found in other Armenian churches as decoration of the apse arches , but rarely in Georgian churches. Only the sides of the four cardinal points are windowed. All four windows are 2.27 meters high and their widths vary between 0.63 and 0.74 meters. The diameter of the tambour is 5.42 meters and is therefore identical to Opiza and slightly larger than Chandsta (5.22 meters), it is 6.15 meters in height (for comparison: Opiza 6.64 meters and Chandsta 6.18 Meter).
Building sculpture and painting
Dolisqana is the earliest church in Tao-Klardschetien, in which colored bricks and sculptural facade decorations come to the fore as design elements. The yellowish, smooth stones of the window reveal on the east side stand out clearly from the gray of the rest of the facade, the round arch is also accentuated by red and white stones. Such a polychromy became a stylistic device in all churches in the region in the second half of the 10th century, but it is absent in Armenia and Georgia.
Around the same time, the omega- shaped decorative arch, which protrudes broadly over rectangular or semicircular windows, came into fashion. Characteristic of Tao-Klardschetien is this arch with a consecutive palmette motif on the front. Such a band of motifs appears in the monastery church called Dörtkilise as a painting in the apse and also as an illustration in manuscripts of the 10th century.
The portrait of King Sumbat I with a church model and its inscription was on the south-eastern blind arch of the drum. Only the lower part remained in poor condition. To the right of the founder should normally have been the addressee, Christ. Presumably such a relief was lost, so that it had to be replaced by a flat stone. The inscriptions there and all other inscriptions are in the early Georgian circular Mrglowani and come from the later construction phase of King Sumbat.
At the central window of the southern arm of the cross, the two archangels Michael on the left (west) and Gabriel on the right are depicted with a nimbus in a strictly frontal representation . They can be identified by accompanying inscriptions. Both wear a long tunic-like robe and hold a man-high staff in their hands. As far as can be seen, her feet are in high boots. The reliefs are flat in their design and effect, the robes are filled with parallel stripes, but are not sculpted. A circular wreath can be seen next to the Archangel Gabriel, in the middle of which is the poorly preserved portrait of the deacon and stonemason Gabriel. Underneath, a large Star of David is emblazoned on a light stone , which can be interpreted as an indication of the connection between King Sumbat and the biblical King David . This historical myth plays a decisive role in the self-image of the Bagratid dynasty.
Inside the church, the wall plaster has come off in the lower part, in the upper part of the earlier mosque some white plastered surfaces have been preserved, under which small remains of painting can be seen. The apse and probably the dome were painted. The fragments of the church fathers and apostles remaining in the lower zone of the apse probably date from the 13th century. In 1967 Christ was still recognizable in the apse above, presumably as a Deësis group together with the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist . The Ascension of Christ should have been depicted in the dome . The blind arcades of the drum were probably filled with prophets.
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. 57–71
- Volker Eid : East Turkey. Peoples and cultures between Taurus and Ararat . DuMont, Cologne 1990, pp. 200f, ISBN 3-7701-1455-8
- Thomas Alexander Sinclair: Eastern Turkey: An Architectural and Archaeological Survey. Vol. II. The Pindar Press, London 1989, p. 21
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Edith Neubauer: Old Georgian architecture. Rock towns. Churches. Cave monasteries. Anton Schroll, Vienna / Munich 1976, p. 32f
- ↑ Sumbat Dawitisdse: Kartlis Zchovreba (ქართლის ცხოვრება, "The life of Kartlis"). Tape. I, p. 377
- ↑ Djobadze, pp. 64-66
- ↑ David Khoshtaria: კლარჯეთის ეკლესიები და მონასტრები. Tbilisi 2005, p. 111
- ↑ Djobadze, p. 57f
- ↑ Djobadze, p 61
- ↑ Oath, p. 200
- ↑ Djobadze, pp. 65f
- ^ Sinclair, p. 21