Svetitskhoveli Cathedral

Svetitskhoveli Cathedral rises in Mtskheta, the old capital of Kartli, where Saint Nino founded the first Georgian church after King Mirian III made Christianity the state religion in 337.

Georgian tradition holds that Elias, a Jew of Mtskheta, brought Christ's mantle from Jerusalem, and his sister Sidonia was buried holding it. A cedar grew from her grave, and its wood became a pillar that hung in the air until Nino's prayers brought it down, shedding healing liquid. The cathedral's name means the life-giving pillar.

King Vakhtang Gorgasali built a basilica there in the late fifth century. The present cathedral was raised in 1010–1029 by the architect Arsukidze under Catholicos Melchizedek I. It became the burial church of Georgian kings, was wrecked by Tamerlane at the end of the fourteenth century and rebuilt in the fifteenth, and received its defensive wall in 1787 under King Erekle II.