page_title: Zemo Nikozi church of the Deity
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Zemo Nikozi church of the Deity / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: Nikozi Cathedral. Dome (Georgia) Русский: Никози, собор. Село Никози, собор крупным планом.
context_page_description: The Zemo Nikozi church of the Deity, also known as Ghvtaeba, is a medieval Georgian Orthodox cathedral in the Gori Municipality, in Georgia's east-central region of Shida Kartli. It is part of the complex which also includes a bell-tower, an episcopal palace, and a circuit wall. The complex is inscribed on the list of Georgia's Immovable Cultural Monuments of National Significance.
  The complex stands in what is now the village of Zemo Nikozi—an "upper" part of the historical settlement of Nikozi—on the right bank of the Greater Liakhvi River, in the immediate proximity of the South Ossetia conflict zone, some 2 km south of the disputed entity's capital of Tskhinvali. The episcopal palace was badly damaged in fighting during the August 2008 Russo-Georgian War and subsequently underwent an emergency stabilization program.
  The Zemo Nikozi church is the seat of a bishop of the Georgian Orthodox Eparchy of Nikozi and Tskhinvali, responsible for the territory of South Ossetia. Some 100 m south stands the church of the Archangel, a small 10th-century domed structure.
context_section_description: As systematic archaeological studies have not been conducted at Nikozi and the church has been remodeled several times in the course of history, neither the fire-temple nor the 5th-century shrine of St. Ražden mentioned in the chronicles has been identified.
  The extant cathedral is constructed in a cross-in-square plan, measuring 16.7 × 11.5 m. A three-line inscription in the medieval Georgian asomtavruli script on the south façade identifies Bishop Michael as the builder of the church and is paleographically dated to the 10th century. The church was substantially rebuilt in the 14th to 16th century and further renovated in the 17th and 19th centuries. Both the outer and inner walls of the church are faced with hewn stone slabs. The interior has then been plastered. The entrances are on the west, south, and north, the latter now closed up. The semi-circular apse of the sanctuary is flanked by a rectangular pastophorium on each side. The eastern and western arms of the "cross" are somewhat elongated. Each of the four arms is pierced by a single window. The dome rests upon the corners of the eastern walls and protruding pylons of the western wall. Eight windows punctuate the drum of the dome. The building is capped with coping stones. Stone ram heads are placed on the ridges of all four pediments. The church carries several badly damaged wall inscriptions; one of them, on a stone slab above a window on the east wall, is reconstructed to bear the name of the certain bishop Zachary and is dated to the early Christian period. The remains of an ambulatory are visible on the ground level.
  In the northwest corner of the complex stands a 16th–17th-century two-storey bell-tower, measuring 5.45 × 5.35 m., with its façades faced with grey hewn stone slabs. The ground floor acts as a vaulted porch with three bearing arches; the top storey a pyramidal structure containing bells. Façades contain several now barely legible asomtavruli inscriptions. The base between openings is a round pillar adorned with a capital. Each of the four façades of the bell-tower terminates in a gable, the peak of which is topped with a sculpted head of a ram. The bell-tower is flanked on either side by a stone wall, which is a later addition.
  An episcopal palace stands in ruins outside the wall, to the southeast. Dated to the 9th–11th century, it is a two-storey building set in a rectangular plan, with the dimensions of 11.2 × 21 m., and built of rubble, ashlars, and brick. The ground floor contains large arched porch and a fireplace; the top one was lit with four arched openings, leading to a wooden balcony.
caption: Dome of the church.
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