Kurmukhi church, Georgian Orthodox church in Qakh District, Azerbaijan
Kurmukhi is a church in the Kurmukh valley near Qakh, built on the remains of an ancient Albanian temple used from the 1st to 3rd centuries. The present structure, restored in 1891–1894, is a stone building with a central dome. Archaeological digs in 2006 revealed four rebuilding phases on the site.
A church existed here by the late 12th or early 13th century, when the area belonged to the Kingdom of Georgia. It is first documented in 1310, when Catholicos-Patriarch Euthymius III visited it. After the Mongol invasions the bishop's seat was moved here from Gishi. Shah Abbas's campaigns of 1614–1617 destroyed the church; the Russian Empire's Society for the Restoration of Christianity in the Caucasus rebuilt it between 1891 and 1894, with local people taking part.
Every year the church hosts Kurmukhoba, the feast of Saint George, attended by both Christian and Muslim Ingiloy. Since 1997 the Georgian Orthodox Church has sought to resume services, and the local Georgian community is now allowed to worship here on 6 May and 23 November, the saint's memorial days.
The church stands in the Kurmukh gorge near the town of Qakh. Regular services are not held; the local Georgian Orthodox community is allowed to worship only on Saint George's feast days, 6 May and 23 November. At other times ask the local community about access before travelling.
In 2006, excavations south of the church revealed four building phases on the site: 1st–3rd centuries, 4th–7th, 8th–11th and the 19th century. The church therefore stands on the remains of an older temple, rebuilt repeatedly over roughly eighteen centuries.
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