The National Agency for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Georgia has completed the restoration work of the Sanagiri Cathedral. The Sanairi Church, named after the Mother of God is situated in Gurjaani Municipality of Georgia.
The National Agency for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Georgia is taking measures to preserve the country’s monuments that fall in the category of national importance.
Nikoloz Aznaurashvili, the director of the National Agency for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Georgia, member of parliament Davit Songhulashvili, first deputy mayor of Gurjaani Leri Gelenava and the agency’s architect-restorers visited the Church site. During their visit they got acquainted with the completed works.
It is worth noting that the restoration works included arranging the church’s roof tin pulley, cleaning the sewerage and drainage channel and removing the upper part of the central nave and the front pile of the southern facade of St. Barbara’s Church.
During the rehabilitation the cement solution used during the early restoration was also removed. Urgent conservation work on the wall paintings was carried out. In 2022 defects were found in the roof of the three-nave basilica named after the Mother of God, which is why the National Agency for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Georgia funded the research and project.
The temple’s cost accounting documentation was completed in 2023 and in the same year, an agreement was signed with the winning company, “Ibex in the electronic tender. The agency allocated 634,755 GEL for the work.
This three-aisled basilica is one of the interesting and characteristic monuments of Georgian Christian architecture, with its artistic and architectural value. The Church of the Mother of God is the main temple of the large monastic complex.
It is a three-nave basilica of the 10th century, on which a three-part gate from the north and a hall church from the south were built in the 10th-11th and 11th-12th centuries. Sanagiri Cathedral was granted the status of a cultural heritage monument on March 30, 2006 and was covered under the category of national importance on November 7, 2006.
