The Bejnazari complex lies in the locality of the same name near Chanakhchi village in Bolnisi Municipality. The place name is Turkish: its second part, nazar, means a guard or overseer, while the meaning of the first is still unknown. The complex holds two small churches and a wall.
The eastern church is the older one and sources assign it to the 17th century. It is a hall of about seven metres by four, laid of irregularly set rubble stone on lime mortar. There are two windows, in the west and east walls, both rectangular inside and out and slightly widened by a splay towards the interior. The entrance door is unusually wide and arched, and fairly massive stones are laid into the supports of the facade.
The walls were finished by an unusually large and skilfully carved cornice of which only two fragments survive on the south wall. What the church was roofed with is not yet clear. A deep semicircular apse is separated from the hall by a side wall, with niches cut into its south and north walls.
💡 Tip
- A complex of two small churches and a wall
- A Turkish place name: nazar means a guard
- A large carved cornice survives in two fragments
🚗 Getting there
- Chanakhchi village, Bolnisi Municipality, Kvemo Kartli
- The Build Route button will take you to the spot
✍️ Know this place? Leave a review on Madloba, so other travellers find it sooner.
