Talk:Svetitskhoveli Cathedral

Clean-up
Renaming seems to have taken place here single handedly, without explanation or consultation. In the process, the original article has been lost. Whilst not as detailed as this one, it was at least written in standard English, which the present article is not. The hyphenation which seems to have been the justification for the move has not been applied consistently. Many other objections -the treatment of the the story of Arsukidze's hand implies that the legend of its excision is true, an essential part of the legend of Christ's robe is that it was Jews from Mtskheta who obtained it (mentioned in the earlier article I think), the parasgraphs are interminable and need breaking up to become readable, etc. etc.--Smerus 16:16, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Dear Smerus

This article does indeed need improvement and cleanup and if you help me with that I would really appreciate that. As you can tell I am not very experienced user on wikipedia, but I am trying to post a correct information. The article which was before this article was very short and I think the cathedral does deserve the bigger article. Some parts of the story of Arsukidze are true. For example, we do know that the Arsukidze was supposedly punished, but other details are not well known. There is a novel in Georgia written by Constantine Gamsakhurdia, which is a very nice novel about Arsukidze. It is a love story, where the King Giorgi and Arsukidze are in love with the same lady Shorena and Arsukidze has many enemies, because he is very talented. In general, most of the story is a fantasy of the author rather than the historical reality. So, the only thing that is historically proven is the hand on the wall of the church is Arsukidze's hand. The person who brought the mantle in Georgia was a Georgian Jew and he obtained the mantle from the Roman soldier. However, he was also Georgian but the fact that he had a Jewish ancestry is not mentioned in the article. In general, there are Jewish people in Georgia living more than 2,000 years. I think they migrated B.C. or early centuries A.D. and I think they are very much part of Georgian culture, but I will mention the fact that the man was Jewish if you want me to. In addition, feel free to edit anything like grammar and stuff like that and I will really appreciate that. I also notified other Georgian wikipedians and theya re gonna help me out on the article as well. Regards. Sosomk 18:31, 4 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Howdy Soso. I think you can also use this website. It contains detailed info about Sveticxoveli's history and architecture.--Kober 19:34, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Interesting detail
"The cathedral of Sveti-Tskhoveli should be, on a larger scale, just as impressive a piece of architecture as Djivari. Built between 1010 and 1029, it, too, is cross-shaped and topped by a shallow dome on a tall drum. The facade, still adorned with medallion reliefs and wine leaf motifs, is given its stately rhythm by a procession of arcades and niches, while, at the same time, a series of rising levels - the porch, the lower nave, the higher nave - seem to lap, like a series of great stone waves, below the powerful upthrust of the drum. Unfortunately, the whole range of radiating galleries and chapels, which were an essential part of this system of rising levels, is gone. '''In the 1830s, when Czar Nicholas I was scheduled to visit Mskheta, they were all razed in order to give the cathedral a tidier look, thus disfiguring what must once have been a first-rate building. Inside, too, the vandals had their way: the frescoes that covered the walls were all whitewashed, and in the end the Czar never came. Today, after much careful restoration, some few remnants survive: fragments of a 13th-century Beast of the Apocalypse and figures of the Zodiac, just enough to guess how beautiful it must all once have been'''". NY Times --Kober 19:42, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Hey Kober, thanks for the great info. Were the vandals Georgian? This does need to eb included in the article.Sosomk 16:28, 8 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Hi Soso. I don't think that Georgians could do this. You may also know that Russians used Metekhi church as a barracks for horsemen in the 1800s. --Kober 16:34, 8 July 2006 (UTC)
 * I guess we can add Russians next to Arabs and Pesrians in the history section.Cheers.Sosomk 05:32, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

Name of the Architect
There is no known evidence that the name of the architect was Konstantine. The existence of that name is only based on the book by Konstantine Gamsakhurdia and is purely fiction. Also, the actual name written on the Svetitskhoveli façade is Arsukidze and not Arsakidze. Welaskesi (talk) 20:58, 15 July 2023 (UTC)