Chronicle of Georgia

Chronicle of Georgia
საქართველოს მატიანე
	41°46′14″N 44°48′38″E / 41.770503°N 44.810438°E
Location	Keeni Hill, Tbilisi, Georgia
Type	Monument
Material	Bronze, Stone
Height	35 metres
Beginning date	1985

The Chronicle of Georgia (Georgian: საქართველოს მატიანე, romanized: sakartvelos mat'iane) (or History Memorial of Georgia) is a monument located on Keeni Hill near the Tbilisi sea. It was created by sculptor Zurab Tsereteli in 1985 but was never fully finished. The monument sits at the top of a large set of stairs, overlooking the northern part of the city from different directions. There are 16 pillars that are between 30–35 meters tall and the top half features kings, queens, and heroes while the bottom part depicts stories from the life of Christ. Beside bronze^[1] pillars, there is a grapevine cross of St. Nino, who first brought Christianity to Georgia and a chapel.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Background

Location

The Chronicle of Georgia is located on Keeni Mountain, a large hill in the northern part of Tbilisi.^[1] The monument lies in the Nadzaladevi District,^[5] accessed by road through Unknown Heroes Street. The monument is also unique as it is located at the northern point of the Tbilisi Sea.

History

The Chronicle of Georgia records the history of Georgia in detail. “During the first five thousand years of human occupancy, the population of Georgia was scanty and thinly spread” ^[6] Homo erectus has been living in Georgia and developing slowly since the Paleolithic Era. Also, The earliest evidence of wine has been found in Georgia. “This was the introduction of domesticated plants and agriculture. The advent of plants cultivation is the most important event in the development of any culture-so important this point in European pre-history has been called the ‘Agricultural Revolution’. ”(Sears 5) In the above part, the brewing and pottery technology of the Georgian people is described. “After the beginning of the Christian era, a minor revolution took place in the culture of the sedentary shell-fish eating people. They begin to make pottery!”(Sears 4) Therefore, Georgian pottery-making technology is also demonstrated at the top of the Chronicle of Georgia. Georgia was annexed by Russia in 1783. It was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1936 and renamed the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic Georgia SSR). During the Soviet period, Zurab Tsereteli built this monument with Soviet funds. In the early 1990s, due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Russo Georgian war, there was a lack of funds, and the monument was never fully completed. Until now, intermittently, work continues on the monument.

Religion

A large part of the Chronicle of Georgia is related to religion. Saint Nino, the enlightener of Georgia, was a woman who preached Christianity in Georgia. The grapevine cross is her symbol. The church next to the Chronicle of Georgia is the church commemorating her. She exists in many Churches in Georgia such as the Georgian Orthodox Church. Georgia began to believe in Christianity in 337 AD. This year King Mirian III declared Christianity the state religion. The spread of Christianity made the ancient Georgian characters disappear and replaced them with new characters mixed with Greek orthography and Syriac alphabet. However, the spread of Christianity boosts the growth of literature and arts.

Tourism

There are large sets of steps on the way to the monument. Here, people can overlook the whole of Tbilisi. The Tbilisi sea, an artificial lake built in 1953, is close by the monument. The reservoir is 8.75km long, with a width of around 2.85km. It is 45m deep at its deepest point. The surface elevation is situated 650-800 meters above sea level.

Sculptor

Life

Born in Tbilisi on January 4, 1934, Zurab Konstantinovich Tsereteli is a Georgian-Russian sculptor and architect of large-scale monuments. He studied at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts. After graduating, he stayed at the Georgian Academy of Sciences and studied Georgian folk art. Tsereteli then became a senior master at the industrial combine of the USSR's Arts Foundation in Tbilisi. He has designed many monuments over the world. During the same time he was working on the Chronicle of Georgia, he also built the Friendship Forever monument in Moscow's Tishinskaya square. The monument symbolizes the friendship between Russia and Georgia. His career is highly controversial since it has been said that he has been involved with the Russia Government. Until March 2014, the artist's aide stated to Georgian news that he "generally does not get involved in politics".

Gallery

At the main entrance, where the stairs go up, stand the Ionic orders, which come into antonymous relation to each other, as the right column is whole and intact, while the left one is on the verge of collapse and is held by abstract power^[1]
Church of the Annunciation at the Chronicle of Georgia monument^[1]