Barakoni Church

Barakoni is the church with which medieval Georgian architecture ends. It was built in 1753 in the village of Tsesi, above the point where the Lukhuni joins the Rioni, for Rostom, Duke of Racha. The builder, Avtandil Shulavreli, is named in the inscription on the east facade — a rarity in Georgia, where architects almost always remained anonymous.

The plan is a cross-in-square with a dome, austere and tall. Barakoni's defining quality is proportion: the drum of the dome is long and slender, and the facades are pulled together so tightly that the church reads as larger than it is. The stone is a pale yellow-grey that catches the light differently through the day; in the evening, as the sun drops towards the western end of the valley, the west front warms noticeably.

The decoration is carved, not painted. Around the windows, on the drum and at the ends of the cross arms there is deeply cut geometric and vegetal ornament, among the best Georgian stonework of the 17th and 18th centuries. Inside, by contrast, the church is almost bare: no frescoes survive, and the space is high, cold and severe.

The story ends unhappily. Rostom, who built Barakoni, lost his contest with King Solomon I of Imereti in 1769, and the dukedom of Racha was abolished. The church is the last substantial thing left from his rule.

Barakoni is an active parish church. The yard is walled and well kept, with tall trees around it. In winter, with the leaves gone, the white stone stands out sharply against black branches; in spring the Rioni below runs loud and brown, and is best seen from the bridge a few hundred metres away.