{{Short description|Monastery in Tigva, Georgia}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox religious building | building_name = Tigva Monastery | image = Tigva church. Southern view. Uvarova 1894.jpg | image_size = | caption = The Tigva church, {{circa|1890}} | map_type = Georgia | map_size = 275 | location = Tigva, South Ossetia/Shida Kartli, Georgia | coordinates = {{coord|42.198333|43.760278|display=inline,title}} | religious_affiliation = Georgian Orthodox Church | rite = | region = | state = | province = | territory = | prefecture = | sector = | district = | cercle = | municipality = | consecration_year = | status = | functional_status = | heritage_designation = | leadership = | website = | architecture = yes | architect = | architecture_type = cross-in-square church | architecture_style = | general_contractor = | facade_direction = | groundbreaking = | year_completed = 1152 | construction_cost = | specifications = Yes | capacity = | length = | width = | width_nave = | height_max = | dome_quantity = | dome_height_outer = | dome_height_inner = | dome_dia_outer = | dome_dia_inner = | minaret_quantity = | minaret_height = | spire_quantity = | spire_height = | materials = | nrhp = | added = | refnum = | designated = | designation1 = | designation1_offname = | designation1_date = | designation1_type = | designation1_criteria = | designation1_number = | designation1_free1name = | designation1_free1value = }}
The '''Tigva Monastery''' of the Dormition of the Mother of God ({{lang-ka|თიღვის მონასტერი}}) is a medieval Georgian Orthodox monastic church at the village of {{ill|Tigva|ceb|Tighva|es|}} in the Prone river valley in what is now the disputed territory of South Ossetia. The monastery building is a domed cross-in-square design. It was founded by Tamar, daughter of King David IV of Georgia, who is commemorated in a Georgian inscription dated to 1152.
== History == The foundation of the Tigva church is mentioned in the Georgian chronicles<ref>{{cite book |last=Thomson |first=Robert W. |author-link=Robert W. Thomson |title=Rewriting Caucasian history: the medieval Armenian adaptation of the Georgian chronicles; the original Georgian texts and the Armenian adaptation |year=1996 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |isbn=0-19-826373-2 |page=325}}</ref> and dated by the construction inscription to 1152. Its donor, or ''ktetor'', was Tamar, daughter of the Georgian king David IV "the Builder" and the dowager-queen of Shirvan, who became a nun at Tigva and died there {{circa|1161}}.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hasan |first=Hadi |title=Falaki-i-Shirwani: His Times, Life and Works |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.77177 |year=1929 |publisher=Royal Asiatic Society |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.77177/page/n20 14]}}</ref> By the early 18th-century, a crisis in Georgia had taken its toll on the monastery: Prince Vakhushti, in his ''Description of the Kingdom of Georgia'', described the monastery at Tigva as "domed, elegant, beautifully built", but "without a priest". Several additional buildings surrounding the church, still extant in Vakhushti's times, were found in ruins by Countess Praskovya Uvarova during her visit in 1890.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wakhoucht |first=Tsarévitch |editor1-first=Marie-Félicité |editor1-last=Brosset |editor1-link=Marie-Félicité Brosset |title=ღეოღრაჶიული აღწერა საქართველოჲსა. Description géographique de la Géorgie |trans-title=Geographic description of Georgia |year=1842 |publisher=A la typographie de l'Academie Impériale des Sciences |location=S.-Pétersbourg |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4JkOAAAAQAAJ&q=Odich |language=ka, fr |pages=264–265}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Uvarova |first1=Praskovya |script-title=ru:Материалы по археологии Кавказа, собранные экспедициями Московского археологического общества. Вып. 4 |trans-title=Materials for archaeology of the Caucasus, collected by the expeditions of the Moscow Archaeological Society, Issue 4 |date=1894 |publisher=Moscow Archaeological Society |location=Moscow |pages=165–172 |url=http://elib.shpl.ru/ru/nodes/24478-vyp-4-hristianskie-pamyatniki-grafini-uvarovoy-1894#page/1/mode/grid/zoom/1 |language=ru}}</ref> Shortly after Uvarova's visit, the church was repaired through the efforts of the priest Zedginidze, princes Amirejibi, and local peasants in 1890.<ref>{{cite journal |title=თიღვის განთქმული ტაძარი ... |journal=Iveria |date=29 August 1890 |volume=185 |pages=1–2 |url=https://dspace.nplg.gov.ge/bitstream/1234/51026/1/Iveria_1890_N185.pdf |trans-title=The famous church of Tigva... |language=ka}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=სოფ. თიღვა (გორის მაზრა) |journal=Iveria |date=19 December 1890 |volume=270 |page=2 |url=https://dspace.nplg.gov.ge/bitstream/1234/51235/1/Iveria_1890_N270.pdf |trans-title=Village Tigva (Gori district) |language=ka}}</ref>
== Architecture == The monastery building, built of blocks of hewn reddish stone, is a well-preserved cross-domed church, inscribed in a rectangle, with the dimensions of 15 x 24 m. Noted for ascetic design and paucity of decorations, the church has the altar with an apse and three rectangular transept arms. The prothesis and diaconicon are also apsed. The dome rests upon wall corners of the apse on the east and two free-standing pillars on the west. The characteristic feature is the presence of narthex and choir on the west. The church has three entrances, to the north, south, and west.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Gamkrelidze |editor1-first=Gela |editor2-last=Mindorashvili |editor2-first=Davit |editor3-last=Bragvadze |editor3-first=Zurab |editor4-last=Kvatsadze |editor4-first=Marine |script-title=ka:ქართლის ცხოვრების ტოპოარქეოლოგიური ლექსიკონი |trans-title=Topoarchaeological Dictionary of Kartlis Tskhovreba (The History of Georgia) |date=2013 |publisher=Georgian National Museum |location=Tbilisi |isbn=978-9941-15-896-4 |edition=1st |url=https://dspace.nplg.gov.ge/bitstream/1234/41521/1/KartlisCxovrebisTopoarqeologiuriLeksikoni.pdf |language=ka |chapter=თიღვა [Tigva] |page=249}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Muskhelishvili |first1=David |last2=Tumanishvili |first2=Dimitri |last3=Gagoshidze |first3=Iulon |last4=Apakidze |first4=Joni |last5=Licheli |first5=Vakhtang |editor1-last=Skinner |editor1-first=Peter |title=The Cultural Heritage of Georgia — Abkhazeti, Shida Kartli |date=2008 |publisher=Georgian Arts and Culture Center |location=Tbilisi |page=17 |url=http://www.symposiumgeorgia.org/Georgia2009/Abxazeti%20Shida%20qartli%20Bukleti.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170418081251/http://www.symposiumgeorgia.org/Georgia2009/Abxazeti%20Shida%20qartli%20Bukleti.pdf |url-status=usurped |archive-date=18 April 2017}}</ref> Mounted above the northern door is a Georgian inscription in the asomtavruli script, first published by Marie-Félicité Brosset in 1851.<ref>{{cite book |last=Brosset |first=Marie-Félicité |author-link=Marie-Félicité Brosset |title=Rapports sur un voyage archéologique dans la Géorgie et dans l'Arménie |language=fr |trans-title=Report on archaeological voyages in Georgia and Armenia |year=1851 |publisher=Imprimerie de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences |location=St.-Petersbourg |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_LZkLAAAAYAAJ |quote=village de Thighwa. |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_LZkLAAAAYAAJ/page/n169 105]–107}}</ref> Its rhymed text mentions Tamar, a donor. The interior was once frescoed, but the murals are now barely discernible.
To the north-west of the main church building was a two-storey palace, built for Tamar. It was directly connected to the church gallery by means of a bridge through a door cut in the western part of the north wall.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Chitishvili |first1=Natalia |title=King's and queen's place in the interior of the Georgian church |url=http://www.farig.org/images/pdfs/2013/Natalia%20Chitishvili.pdf |publisher=Friends of Academic Research in Georgia |accessdate=17 April 2017 |pages=17–18 |year=2013}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}} {{Commons category|Tigva Monastery}}
Category:1152 establishments in Asia Category:1152 establishments in Europe Category:12th-century churches in Georgia (country) Category:12th-century Eastern Orthodox church buildings Category:Christian monasteries established in the 1150s Category:Churches in South Ossetia Category:Georgian Orthodox church buildings in Georgia (country) Category:Georgian Orthodox monasteries Category:Immovable Cultural Monuments of National Significance of Georgia