SIONI CATHEDRAL
Sioni's beautiful cathedral offers a striking visit to discover a major relic and frescoes by Prince Gagarin.
It is beautiful, day and night. With its sand-coloured stone facades, Sioni Cathedral dominates the surroundings and still exerts the same aura on its visitors in an impression of beauty and simplicity. If you have the opportunity to attend a mass, it takes on another dimension: the ritual enhanced by the beauty of the polyphonic chants will make your visit memorable, or at least much more lively. Georgia is still a very religious country, and the surrounding fervour of the faithful at mass is unique, as evidenced by the walls and frescoes blackened by the smoke of candles over the centuries. Sioni is particularly venerated. Indeed, it is home to a major relic, the famous cross of Saint Nino. According to the legend, it would have been given to her in a dream-vision by the Virgin Mary. Her mission? To evangelize the country. The instigator of Christianity in Georgia would have assembled the branches with her own hair to create this cross. Inside, you can see a replica and the frescoes of Prince Gagarin (1810-1893).
Originally, this church, built at the end of the 6th century, was named after the Hill of Zion in Jerusalem. Regularly destroyed during successive invasions, King David the Builder is said to have rebuilt it in 1112. Further invasions and earthquakes damaged it, before it was renovated in the early 1980s. Formerly the seat of the patriarchate, it was dethroned by Sameba Cathedral.
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