Sera

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Nino Bagrationi
Giorgi Bagrationi
Giorgi Bagrationi
Gia Shervashidze

Ruins of buildings once forming an architectural ensemble at Sera lie on an elevated natural terrace near a river bank. One of the stone buildings, which must have been rectangular on plan, was most likely designed as a feudal palace. At the end of the terrace stands a well-preserved hall-type church covered with a double-pitched roof. It is bulit of white and yellowish neatly hewn blocks arranged in uneven courses.

The entrance to the church is from the south. There is a window in the sanctuary in the east and one on the west. The hall was roofed with a cylindrical vault supported by pilasters attached to the edges of the lateral walls. The pilasters have roughly plastered capitals. The conch has an egg-like shape. The stone masonry is of low quality.

The south door exterior is provided with a specially adorned portal. The door has a vertically extending twisted ornament, which is stepped at the top of the door forming a shapeless semi-circle enclosing a taller curve with the Golgotha Cross and an inscription in nuskhuri(secular) script carved in the centre. Only two letters ქ-ე [K-E] are legible. The arch is flanked by crosses inscribed in circles. A stone of a similar quality that once adorned the east window now lies near the edge of the east wall. The jamb of the door preserves a trace of a mural painting.

The south facade bears a long inscription in nuskhuri script extending from the portal to the east edge of the south elevation which once reached the east side. The inscription mentions the builder of the church Atabag Mzechabuck who was identified by E. Takaishvili with the son of Kvarkvare I, ruler of Samtskhe-Saatabago.

Judging by the inscription and architectural features, the church must have been bulit between 1500 and 1515.

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