Tiri Monastery

Tiri Monastery is located in Shida Kartli Region, Gori Municipality, 8 km away from Tskhinvali. The monument is currently on the territory which is occupied by Russia. The complex includes several buildings: the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, the refectory, the bell tower, the fence and the caves. The earliest of the buildings is the church of the nativity of the virgin mary, which dates back to the XIII century.

Architecture

Tiri church of the Holy Virgin Mary is a hall-type building, complicated by late annexes. The temple hall ends with a semicircular apse inscribed in a rectangle. To the west of the church is the chapel, which is connected to the main nave by a wide arched exit. The apse is one step above the floor of the hall. The apse stands one step above the floor of the hall. There is a narrow bema between the apse and the nave. The longitudinal walls of the temple are separated by pilasters and wall decorative arches. The triumphal arch is two-stepped. Its height does not reach the vault, it is lower. That is why a raised forehead is erected on the center of the conch arch. The building has two richly decorated entrances. The main portal is cut in the middle of the south facade, the second one is the same, although a smaller one is located at a south-west corner and is connected to the western storeroom. There are arched niches on both sides of the entrance to the east wall of the western storeroom. The south and north annexes are small simple storerooms. The south storeroom is an independent building with an entrance from the west. The facades of the church are richly decorated. The doors and windows are decorated with ornamental edges, rollers and additional decorative elements above them. The doors and windows are decorated with ornamental outers, rollers and additional decorative elements above them. The facades are decorated with profiled eaves decorated from the beginning to the end. To the west of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary stands a refectory. The building is rectangular in plan. It is very damaged: the south wall is completely broken, the eastern wall is half-preserved, the vault is collapsed. To the south-west of the temple is a two-story bell tower. The construction of the bell tower is traditional - the first floor is a low cube surrounded by a wall on each side, and the upper floor is a polyhedral, arched summerhouse. The preserved fence of the monastery is so close to the buildings that facades are inserted between the walls, and creates the impression of a continuous wall. It seems that it should be at the site of the original fence and repaired many times.