Kashveti, the St George church on Rustaveli Avenue: the stone that gave birth, the frescoes that cost Gudiashvili his party card and how to visit

On Rustaveli Avenue, opposite Parliament and next to the National Gallery, there is a pale stone church with a conical dome that everyone takes for medieval and which is little more than a century old: Kashveti, the church of St George, built between 1904 and 1910 as a copy of an 11th-century cathedral. It is the church of central Tbilisi, the one you pass on the way to work, the one you step into to light a candle between errands, and the one that saw from its door the worst and the best of the country's recent history. This guide tells the name, which is a story in itself, the building, the frescoes and the practical side.

The stone that gave birth

The name comes from kva, stone, and shva, to give birth: the stone gave birth. The legend is from the 6th century, when David Garejeli, one of the thirteen Syrian fathers, lived as a hermit on Mount Mtatsminda, above where the church stands, and came down to the city to preach. A pregnant woman, egged on by tradition by the fire priests, accused him of being the father; David touched her belly with his staff and said that if he was the father a child would be born, and if not, a stone. A stone was born, and on that spot the first church was raised. David then went to the Gareja desert to found the monastery that bears his name.

The building

What you see is the third church on the site: in 1753 Prince Givi Amilakhvari raised one of brick, which became too small when Rustaveli turned into the avenue of the Russian city, and between 1904 and 1910 the architect Leopold Bilfeld, a Tbilisi German, replaced it with this one, a scaled copy of the 11th-century Samtavisi cathedral, with its inscribed-cross plan, its twelve-windowed drum and its carved eastern facade. The sculptures were by Neofit Agladze. In the midst of empire it was a declaration that Georgia had an architecture of its own, which is why they copied rather than invented.

Gudiashvili's frescoes

The apse was painted by Lado Gudiashvili, the great Georgian painter of the 20th century, the one of the long-eyed women and the Tbilisi feasts, between 1946 and 1947, with a Virgin and Child and angels in his style, elongated and sinuous, nothing like an icon. It was Stalin's Soviet Union and painting a church had consequences: he was expelled from the Communist Party and from his chair at the Academy of Fine Arts, though not arrested, perhaps because he was too famous. The frescoes are still there, in dim light, and are the reason to go in.

What it saw from its door

On the pavement opposite, in front of Parliament, the Soviet army killed twenty people, almost all women, in the early hours of 9 April 1989, dispersing a demonstration for independence; there is a memorial on the spot and Georgia declared independence on the same date two years later. Since then every demonstration on the avenue, and there have been many, passes in front of Kashveti, and the church stays open meanwhile.

The practical side

It is open every day from morning to night, with sung liturgy on Sunday mornings, which is when it is best seen and heard; entry is free. Shoulders and knees covered, women with a headscarf, available at the entrance, men without caps, and no photos during services. Around it: Parliament opposite, the National Gallery next door, with the Pirosmanis, the National Museum a hundred metres away, with the gold of Vani, and 9 April park behind. To get out of the city, Svaneti with Becho and Ushba to the west, or the forest of Lagodekhi to the east.

Frequently asked questions