Khopi Saint Nicholas Church

The Saint Nicholas Church is a ruined medieval church at the village of Khopi (Khuap) in Abkhazia, an entity in the South Caucasus with a disputed political status.[1] It is located some 18 km northwest of the town of Gudauta, at the foot of the Bzyb Range.

A church inscription from Khopi (now on display at the Sukhumi museum.

The extant structure is a remnant of a hall church, probably built in the period of the 10th-12th century and covered by dense foliage. No contemporary historical records mention it. In 1967, while exploring the ruins, the art historian Leo Shervashidze found a limestone slab carrying a partially damaged Georgian inscription in the medieval asomtavruli script arranged in 14 lines around a Maltese-type cross carved in relief. The extant text relates that the church was constructed in the reign of King George around the time when Gurandukht was born, imploring St. Nicholas's intercession before the Christ. Based on the context and epigraphic features of the inscription, this king George is variously identified as George II of Abkhazia (r. 923–957) by Leo Shervashidze,[2] George I of Georgia (r. 1014–1027) by Teimuraz Barnaveli,[3] or George III of Georgia (r. 1156–1178) by Vladimir Silogava and Andrey Vinogradov and Denis Beletsky.[4] All these monarchs had a daughter named Gurandukht.

References
  1. Abkhazia is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Abkhazia and Georgia. The Republic of Abkhazia unilaterally declared independence on 23 July 1992, but Georgia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory and designates it as a territory occupied by Russia. Abkhazia has received formal recognition as an independent state from 7 out of 193 United Nations member states, 1 of which has subsequently withdrawn its recognition.
  2. Shervashidze, Leo A. (1968). "Церковь святого Николая в селе Хуап Гудаутского района" [Church of Saint Nicholas in the village of Khuap in the Gudauta district]. Doklady na Vsesojuznoj sessii arheologov i yetnografov (in Russian). Moscow: 23–24.
  3. Barnaveli, Teimuraz B. (1981). "Надпись на плите из церкви сел. Хуап Гудаутского района" [A slab inscription from the church of Khuap in the Gudauta district]. Sakartvelos Metsnierebata Akedemiis Matsne (Herald of the Georgian Academy of Sciences, History Series) (in Russian). 3: 122–125.
  4. Vinogradov, Andrey Y.; Beletsky, Denis V. (2015). Церковная архитектура Абхазии в эпоху Абхазского царства. Конец VIII — X в. [Church architecture of Abkhazia in the era of the Kingdom of Abkhazia. End of the 8th to the 10th century.] (in Russian). Moscow: Indrik. pp. 95–96.

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