Shida Kartli

Ikort'a Church

Ikort'a church of the Archangel, commonly known as Ikort'a is a 12th-century Georgian Orthodox church located at the outskirts of the village Ikort'a in Shida Kartli region of eastern Georgia. Commissioned by the ducal family of Ksani in the reign of King George III of Georgia in 1172, Ikort'a is the earliest in a series of the 12th-13th-century churches of Georgia that set a final canonical model of a Georgian domed church. The Ikort'a church is a centrally planned, domed rectangular design, with a semicircular apse on the east. The dome, with 12 windows pierced round its tall base, rests upon the corners of the altar and two hexangular pillars. Walls and vaults were plastered and frescoed at the time of construction; but only some fragments of original murals survived in the apse, northern wall and the base of the dome. The facades and a lower portion of the dome are lavishly ornamented. The church was renovated in the 17th century, but the original design was largely preserved. There are two entrance portals, one to the south and one to the west. Original porches have been ruined, and the extant porch to the south is of much later period. There are a solar clock and an ancient Georgian asomtavruli inscription on the western wall.