Nikortsminda Cathedral, Eastern Orthodox cathedral in Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti, Georgia.
Nikortsminda Cathedral is a Georgian Orthodox church in the village of Nikortsminda, Ambrolauri Municipality, built of smoothly hewn stone on a short-armed rectangular cross plan. Inside, five apses with half-pillar projections carry a massive dome lit by twelve windows in its drum. The south and west porches were added in the first half of the 11th century, and a three-storey bell tower stands in the yard.
Nikortsminda was built in 1010–1014 under King Bagrat III of Georgia, as confirmed by a carved inscription praising him and his heir. In 1534 King Bagrat III of Imereti repaired it and granted the church a charter, after which it served as the seat of the Racha bishopric. The cathedral was damaged in the 1991 Racha earthquake and subsequently restored.
The south portal and the dome drum carry carved reliefs of the Transfiguration, the Last Judgment and the Ascension of the Cross, alongside Saint George, Saint Theodore and real and mythical animals. A carved inscription on the oval side of a relief blesses King Bagrat III and his heir. On the west wall, beside a window, a donor inscription asks Saint Nicholas to have mercy on Giorgi, the church's teacher.
The cathedral stands in the village of Nikortsminda in the Racha highlands, reached by road from Ambrolauri. The site was damaged in the 1991 Racha earthquake and later restored. A three-storey bell tower built in the second half of the 19th century stands in the churchyard.
In 2012, restoration work uncovered 16th-century frescoes hidden under soot in the cathedral's porches, showing the donors, local nobles and the Archangel Michael. One inscription names the painter, a certain Javakhadze, and two families, the Javakhadzes and the Tsulukidzes, are mentioned beside the donor portraits.
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