Amlivi (Amlevi) complex

Amlivi (Amlevi) complex is located in Kvemo Kartli region, in Tetritskaro municipality, in Orbeti community, on the left side of the Algeti river, 1090 meters above sea level.

Description

According to the inscription, which was preserved in the church in 1683, the representative of Baratashvili, Papuna Gostashabishvili, built a church, a bell tower, a palace and several agricultural building, during the reign of George XI. The interior of the building is unfinished (not plastered, painted) due to the death of the ktetor. Description: Gostashabishvili door church, dated 1683.

The monument is located on the southern slope of the mountain, where the dense, deciduous forest ends and coniferous forest begins. The north wall of the church is situated deep into the rock. In the western part of platform there is a fragment of the old church. The building is a single-nave and hall type. It represents an elongated rectangle in plan (12.5x7.5 m). Covered with spherical vault with semicircular shaped apse. On the apse sides stone iconostasis is arranged (restored), which consist of square columns and on which there are six arches. The entrance to the altar is in the middle and north of the iconostasis. Apse is followed by a narrow stage of stone. There are five arched windows in the church, whose architraves are richly ornamented on the outside. Three of them are in the south wall, one on the west and one on the east sides - in apse. To the north of the last window, a rectangular, lancet shaped niche is laid out in the plan, in the wall of the apse. On the opposite side, to the south, there is also a wrong shaped niche in plan, which is located deep into the wall. There is a square shaped table of monolithic stone in the altar. At its anterior plane is a curved cross. The church has two entrances, from the south and from the west. There is also a narrow tunnel built in the southwest corner of the interior, which joins the underground storage. Under the false arch of the west wall, on the tympanum, the building inscription is protected from the outside and the corners of architraves are ornamented. The south door has false lancet shaped overlap, in the middle with a single stone tympanum, on which the silhouette of the savior's icon was drawn with modern graphic tools. The floor of the hall and the apse is made of stone tiles. The building is covered with a cylindrical vault, fortified with three arches. The western arch relies on pilasters at the corners of the wall. A pair of arches rely on four pilasters built in longitudinal walls. These pilasters are mounted on ornamented bases and end with simple shaped capitals. The same capitals are characterized by pilasters of the western wall.

Constructively responsible areas in the interior (triumphal arches with pilasters, arches, door trims, etc.) are built of local stones. The walls and roof planes are built of a raw stone, tufa, and seem to be ready for plastering. On the south and west sides of the church there is a two-step stone base. Around facades there is a сornice without decor. According to E.Takaishvili the tire consisted of stone slabs, but now, after the restoration it is overlapped with tile. On the eastern facade there is a window decor, which is ornamented with a long cross-shaped image. The cross has cones on the extension of the arms and the upper part. The same cross was smaller in size, to the top of the western facade window. The lower part of this cross and the fragment of left arm with a cone are still preserved. At the bottom of this fragment are small figures of two humans depicted with hands raised above. The jug is placed between them and the hammers on both sides. It is likely that the figures represent the builders. The exterior of the church is entirely constructed of tufa. At the western facade the tunnel is arranged in platform, which is getting down to the south and passes through the agricultural building. In the northern corner of the south wall, there is an entrance in the wall. Next to the entrance, there is a two-storey bell tower.