The Church of the Savior in the village of Chanashi, Svaneti, is one of the most beautiful places in Georgia. The church was built in the 10th century.

Architecture

The church building is an example of medieval architecture of Georgia of the X century. The building is made of oil shale, the mountain rock of these places. The sights of Georgia are always attracted by its architecture, which blends into the mountain landscape and becomes part of it.

The plan of the construction of this church hall is a square, which turns into a rounded stone aspid with a high half-dome on top, illuminated from the carved window in its wall. The vault of the cathedral is divided into two parts by arches passing into stone pilasters. The main building has a late period annex whose wall has an entrance arched door. The western part of the building is also decorated with an arch.

There is a second window on the west side that provides even natural light to the centrally located three-arch iconostasis and the high stone refectory painted with authentic ornaments. In this cathedral there are the most ancient icons and crosses, one of the relics of this temple complex is a silver icon of the Savior, dating back to the XI century.

The mural painting of the church's interior was made in the XVII century. Fragments of frescoes and ornaments cover the annex, the surface at the entrance doors to the hall. There are also traces of frescos of that time on the upper part of the northern facade. The southern facade is decorated with stone arches. The church used to be plastered, but now only the north and west facades of the building have plaster.