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22-626: It has existed from at least the 9th century, and has numbered among its monks many important figures in Georgian ecclesiastical history. At the end of the 13th century Sapara became a possession of the Jakeli family, whose leader, Sargis Jakeli , was adept at staying on good terms with the Mongols , which enabled Samtskhe to enjoy a peace unusual for the time. When he grew old, Sargis took monastic orders and changed his name to Saba. His son Beka built

44-609: A number of planes. The lower part of the southern wall depicts St. Saba and Jaqeli rulers of Samtskhe: Sargis I, Beka I, Sargis II and Kvarkvare. Above them the Great Feasts, also depicted on the northern wall. The western wall contains numerous Biblical scenes. Among them healings, miracles and the Last Judgement . The apse, in addition to bishops and deacons, depicts the Deesus and Eucharist . The vaults are decorated by

66-418: Is illuminated rather weakly by four windows, one in each arm of the cross, and eight windows in the dome tholobate . The mural have signs of development through the church history: variation in the manner, colours, width of contours. The murals of the southern wall are probably the oldest, from the 14th century. Generally following the traditions of that period, special accent is made on space and tonality with

88-459: Is one of the oldest built in Georgia. Its cubic first floor contain depictions of the members of Lasuridze family, and, thus, served as their tomb. The belfry is on the upper floor. [REDACTED] Media related to Sapara Monastery at Wikimedia Commons Jakeli The House of Jaqeli ( Georgian : ჯაყელი ) was a Georgian princely ( mtavari ) family and a ruling dynasty of

110-468: Is the upright part of a building on which a dome is raised. It is generally in the shape of a cylinder or a polygonal prism. The name derives from the tholos , the Greek term for a round building with a roof and a circular wall. Another architectural meaning of "drum" is a circular section of a column shaft In the earlier Byzantine church architecture the dome rested directly on the pendentives and

132-528: The Bagratid kings of Georgia. Eventually, under the queen Tamar of Georgia (1184-1213), the family, in the person of Botso, fell in dishonor, and the title of Jaqeli as well as most of their possessions passed to their relatives of the House of Tsikhisjvari (Tsikhisjvreli), also a Chorchaneli offshoot. The dispossessed family of Botso Jaqeli came to be known as Botsosdze, last heard of with Memna, who died during

154-708: The Principality of Samtskhe , an offshoot of the House of Chorchaneli. "Jaqeli", literally meaning "of/from Jaqi", was originally a territorial epithet. The family received this name from the castle of Jaqi on the Jaqis-tsqali, one of the left affluents of the Mtkvari (Kura) (now in Turkey ). The Jaqeli traced their origin to the late 9th-century nobleman Beshken, of the Chorchaneli, whose descendants possessed

176-410: The 13th century temple architecture in Georgia, this church also survived in rather good condition till modern times. Ordered to be constructed by Beka I Jaqeli , it was built by architect Peresasdze. His name can be found on the western window arch of the portal. Due to complex relief and little space he had to build a wall from the southern side. The church probably had three entrances. Currently only

198-883: The churches of the Les Invalides , the Val-de-Grâce , and the Sorbonne in Paris . There are also secular buildings with tholobates: the United States Capitol dome in Washington, D.C. is set on a drum, a feature imitated in numerous American state capitols . The Panthéon in Paris is another secular building featuring a dome on a drum. St Paul's Cathedral and the Panthéon were the two inspirations for

220-590: The defense of Tbilisi against the Khwarezmid ruler Jalal ad-Din Manguberdi in 1226; and with his brother Botso. With Ivane-Qvarqvare of Tsikhisjvari (fl. c. 1195-1247), enfeoffed by Queen Tamar of Botso's titles and possessions, the new line of the Jaqeli dynasty emerged. It attained, in the person of Sargis I (r. c. 1260-1285), to the hereditary principate of Samtskhe, and became de facto independent of

242-452: The entrance and the windows, particularly the central window. Entering from the northern portal, its tympanum contains a cross with two medallions, carrying birds. An ornamentation flanks the entrance. The eastern portal and the upper facade both have rich and harmonic ornamentation. The heavy dome contains sixteen windows on the tholobate - eight true and eight false, a feature that will become common in later churches. Its bell tower

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264-823: The family throughout the unceasing wars between the Ottomans, the Iranian dynasties and the Georgian rulers down to the eventual Russian conquest in 1829 (see Battle of Akhalzic ). A cadet branch, from the Kvabliani valley, accepted the Russian rule and assumed the surname of Atabekov-Kvabliansky. Presently, there are 1526 people in Georgia of Jaqeli family. [REDACTED] Media related to Jaqeli at Wikimedia Commons Tholobate A tholobate (from Greek : θολοβάτης , romanized :  tholobates , lit.   'dome pedestal'), drum or tambour

286-452: The kings of Georgia under the protectorate of Mongol Ilkhanate in 1268. The residence of Jaqeli was established in Sapara . In 1334, King George V of Georgia brought Samtskhe within the Georgian realm again, and bestowed his maternal uncle Sargis II Jaqeli (r. 1306-1334) with the dignity of atabag , which would become hereditary in the Jaqeli line down to the 17th century. Henceforth,

308-495: The largest of the 12 churches here, St Saba's Church , named after the saint whose name his father had adopted, one of the most architecturally important churches of its time. The 14th-century frescoes inside are of high quality. From the end of the 16th century until the beginning of the 17th century the Sapara Monastery became empty due to the expansion of Ottoman Empire policy into Samtskhe and during this process

330-464: The medallions of evangelists. Further up, the tholobate contains eight disciples. Above them, in the dome, the Ascension . The exterior decoration is rich as well. Polychromatic red-violet cladding is typical for the period, as well as the dipped window decorations. It is rather hard to explore the eastern facade, hanging over a precipice; thus poor decoration. Southern facade has ornamentation around

352-429: The monastery's icons and other treasures were taken to more protected areas of Georgia. Set in a green forested canyon, the monastery is contrastingly distinguished by its pink and yellow stones. The ensemble is composed of church buildings and remnants of a palace and fortifications walls. The most important is the cross-in-square temple of St. Saba . Another significant church is St. Mary's Assumption Church . This

374-520: The most active contending factions, "not without responsibility for the failure to maintain the political unity of the nation", as the British scholar William Edward David Allen puts it. Beginning from 1578, Samtskhe became a target of Ottoman expansion, and the Jaqeli atabags, after a futile resistance, conveniently apostatized to Islam, and were made hereditary pashas of Akhaltsikhe, a position which they retained, with some brief intermissions, within

396-411: The northern and western remain. The eastern facade is distinguished by contrastingly produced square altar part. Within the church the apse is flanked by the prothesis and sacristy on the ground floor, and the crypts on the upper. An archaic feature is the presence of choirs in the upper floor of the western part. The upper floor is connected with the entire space by the arches. The interior

418-510: The principality was known as Samtskhe-Saatabago , the latter part of this portmanteau meaning "of the atabags". By the mid-15th century, the Jaqeli family had finally succeeded in reducing the rival noble families into vassalage or in driving them out of Samtskhe. By 1490/1491, when the Georgian kingdom finally dissolved into a number of weak and rivaling polities, the Jaqelis were among

440-546: The valleys of Jaqi, Postkhovi (modern Posof , Turkey), and Uraveli (near Akhaltsikhe , Georgia). The title "Jaqeli" first appears in the names of Beshken (I), lord ( eristavi ) of Tukharisi, and Murvan, lord of Q'ueli and Beshken's possible son. Beshken (II), Murvan's possible son, died fighting the Seljuk Turks in Javakheti in 1118. From the 1050s to the 1190s, the Jaqeli took part in several feudal uprisings against

462-529: The windows were pierced in the dome itself; in later examples, between the pendentive and the dome an intervening circular wall was built in which the windows were pierced. This is the type which was universally employed by the architects of the Renaissance , of whose works the best-known example is St. Peter's Basilica at Rome . Other examples of churches of this type are St Paul's Cathedral in London and

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484-448: Was the earliest church in the ensemble, built, probably, in the 10th century. The large hall church has two entrances: original, western, and northern, which was opened after the construction of St. Saba's Church. The western part, unusually for hall churches, has two floors. Its eastern part contains the apse with the conch. The fragments of frescos date to the beginning of 14th century. The facades are decorated by reliefs. Best example of

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