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BATUM TO TIFLIS 81
church he bade us welcome, and conducted us into his
cathedral.
With its simple Georgian circular style, high dome, massive
piers and thick walls, it produces an impression of austere
dignity. A little church which stands at one side, within the
larger one, was the original church, the bishop said, erected
towards the end of the fifth century, and containing the relics
of a man who had seen the Crucifixion. According to another
version it was raised on the spot where Christ’s coat was
found, håving been brought thither from Golgotha by the
above-mentioned Jew ; though some assert that it was the
virgin St. Nino who brought the coat from Jerusalem.
The church has been destroyed over and over again by
ruthless enemies, and its fortunes reflect the history of Georgia.
In 1318 it was wrecked by an earthquake. King George VI
rebuilt it, but it soon fell a prey to the fierce Mongols. King
Alexander raised it again from its ruins, but even then it was
several times wrecked in the constant attacks of Lesghian
marauders, and had to be restored twice.
Many kings of Georgia are buried in the church, and their
tombs are covered by flat gravestones ; but these ancient
graves have been partially destroyed by plundering enemies.
The king who built the church had been buried in the middle
of the floor, and wc saw his flat tombstone ; but it had been
left nameless for fear it should be discovered and destroyed
by Persians or Turks next time they fell upon the town. The
last king but one, Heraklius 11, lies buried on the right in
front of the altar. Wc were told that he died at the age of
eighty-nine in 1798, after taking part in sixty different wars.
It was with this king in mmd that Frederick the Great of
Prussia said to his soldiers that they must try and fight as
bravely as the Georgians. The bishop’s eyes shone with pride
as he told us this. Beside King Heraklius lies his daughter
Thekla, who died in the first half of last century. On the left
of the altar lies the last king, George XIII, who at his death
in 1 801 gave his country to the Russian Tsar to save it from
the Persians.
An interesting feature of the churches in Mtskhetha is the
use of different coloured stones in ornamental patterns, which
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