Bolnisi
Encyclopedia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
, located in the Kvemo Kartli
Kvemo Kartli
Kvemo Kartli is a historic province and current administrative region in southeastern Georgia. The city of Rustavi is a regional capital. The population is mixed between Azeris and Georgians .The current governor is Davit Kirkitadze.- External links :* *...
region and capital of the Bolnisi district
Bolnisi District
Bolnisi is a district of Georgia, in the region of Kvemo Kartli. Its main town is Bolnisi.- Geographical location :Bolnisi District is situated south-west part of country and has common border upon Armenia. Area of district amounts 804 km². The highest point is Lok mount. Bolnisi is a district...
. Currently has an estimated 13,800 inhabitants.
In 1818 the colony Katharinenfeld was founded in Bolnisi by 95 German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
colonist families from Swabia
Swabia
Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...
. After the occupation of the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
in 1921, it was renamed to Luxemburg after the German communist Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...
. 1941 all the Germans descendants who were not married to Georgians were deported to Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
and Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
. 1944 the town was once again renamed as Bolnisi.
The economy is mostly agrarian with the notable exceptions of a winery, brewery, and a gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
mine in the nearby village of Kazreti.
Bolnisi is the home of the oldest dated Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
structure in Georgia and the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
. It is known as Bolnisi Sioni
Bolnisi Sioni
Bolnisi Sioni or Bolnisi Sioni Cathedral is a Georgian Orthodox basilica in the Bolnisi village of Bolnisi District, Georgia. The cathedral was built in 478-493. It is the oldest extant church building in the Republic of Georgia....
(Sioni being Georgian for Zion
Zion
Zion is a place name often used as a synonym for Jerusalem. The word is first found in Samuel II, 5:7 dating to c.630-540 BCE...
and a designation used by many of their churches). This three-nave basilica
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
church dates to the 5th century AD and features some pagan
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
elements in its stonework. The original roof is missing but has been replaced with a modern covering.
A dedication inscription from the Bolnisi church, carved in the late 5th century, is one of the oldest dated specimens of Georgian writing
Georgian alphabet
The Georgian alphabet is the writing system used to write the Georgian language and other Kartvelian languages , and occasionally other languages of the Caucasus such as Ossetic and Abkhaz during the 1940s...
. It mentions Bishop David of Bolnisi and two Sassanid kings Peroz I
Peroz I
Peroz I Peroz I Peroz I (also Pirooz; Peirozes (Priscus, fr. 33); Perozes (Procopius, De Bello Pers. I. 3 and Agathias iv. 27; the modern form of the name is Perooz, Piruz, or the Arabized Ferooz, Firuz; Persian: پیروز "the Victor"), was the seventeenth Sassanid King of Persia, who ruled from 457...
and Kavadh I
Kavadh I
Kavad or Kavadh I was the son of Peroz I and the nineteenth Sassanid king of Persia, reigning from 488 to 531...
.
An airfield near the city was reported to have been bombed by Russia on August 8th, 2008 during the War in South Ossetia (2008). http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080808/ap_on_re_eu/georgia_south_ossetia_28;_ylt=AmbBKrNHVd8FYkuYULUW5J9bbBAF
See also
- The history of The Caucasus Germans in Georgia