page_title: Samshvilde
section_title: Monuments
hierarchical_section_title: Samshvilde / Monuments
caption_attribution_description: ქართული: VIII საუკუნის სამშვილდის სიონი, ეკლესია სამნავიანი, გალავანი, მეგალითები და სხვა ნაგებობანიEnglish: VIII century Samshvilde Sioni church This is a photo of a monument in Georgia identified by the ID 1759
context_page_description: Samshvilde is a ruined fortified city and archaeological site in Georgia, in the country's south, near the homonymous modern-day village in the Tetritsqaro Municipality, Kvemo Kartli region. The ruins of the city, mostly medieval structures, stretch for a distance of 2.5 km in length and 400 metres in width in the Khrami river valley. Some of the most recognizable monuments are the Samshvilde Sioni church and a citadel erected on a rocky river promontory.
  Samshvilde features in the medieval Georgian annals as one of the oldest cities of ancient Kartli, dating back to the 3rd century BC. In the Middle Ages, it was an important stronghold as well as a lively commercial and industrial city. Samshvilde changed hands several times. At the end of the 10th century, it became capital of the Armenian kings of Tashir-Dzoraget and was incorporated in the Kingdom of Georgia in 1064. From the mid-13th century on, as fortunes of the medieval Georgian monarchy faded, Samshvilde went into decline and was reduced to a peripheral military outpost. By the end of the 18th century, it was in ruins.
context_section_description: The archaeological horizon and architectural monuments of Samshvilde are inscribed on the list of the National Heritage of Georgia as the City-Site of Samshvilde (სამშვილდის ნაქალაქარი). Archaeological study of the Samshvilde area began in 1948 and systematic efforts for better conservation of the site were launched in 1978. In the 2000s, construction of major international pipelines in the region prompted new archaeological projects and discovery of new prehistoric features. Many of the late medieval and early modern structures were further studied by the Samshvilde Archaeological Expedition organized by the Tbilisi-based University of Georgia from 2012 to 2015.
  The city-site occupies a nearly triangular area on a promontory at the Khrami–Chivchavi confluence and is divided into three main parts. The citadel is on the east, on a steep edge of the promontory, and the city proper lies on the west, with the walled fortress in between them. The site includes ruins of several churches, a citadel, palaces, houses, a bridge over the Chivchavi river, water cisterns, bathes, a cemetery, and other accessory structures.
  A small hall-church of St. George stands in the city proper. A now-lost Georgian inscription of 1672, published by E. Takaishvili, identifies the lady called Zilikhan, a former caretaker of the wife of King Vakhtang V of Kartli, as a renovator of the church.
  Inside the fortress walls, stands a small stone church, that of the Dormition, which contains a large, prehistoric black menhir, sooty of candle flames, with a cross and an Armenian text mentioning the prince Smbat inscribed into it in the 11th century. The Khrami river is overlooked by another church, known as the Theogenida, probably built in the 12th or 13th century, near which a structure made of four big stones, a tetralith, is found.
  The citadel consists of massive walls, towers, and three larger churches. Among these is the domed Sioni church, now in ruins, the most recognizable landmark of Samshvilde. The medieval tradition ascribes its construction to the 5th-century queen Sagdukht, but the extant edifice dates to c. 759–777 as suggested by a Georgian inscription from the better-preserved eastern façade, containing references to the contemporary Byzantine emperors Constantine V and Leo IV the Khazar. There is another, heavily damaged, almost illegible Georgian inscription in the southern façade and, next to it, a fragment in Armenian identifying the Armenian catholicos Gevorg III Loretsi (r. 1069–1072). The strict architectural forms of the Samshvilde church reveal close affinities with design of the 7th-century Tsromi church in Shida Kartli.
  West to the Sioni is a three-nave basilica, probably an Armenian church, built of dark basalt stones in the 10th or 11th century. The third church is a hall-church design, with a protruding apse and a wall inscription in Georgian, mentioning King David IV of Georgia (r. 1089–1125).
caption: Ruins of the Samshvilde Sioni Church as of 2012.
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