Saint George's Armenian Church

Located in the heart of Old Tbilisi near the historic Meydan area, Saint George’s Cathedral (Surb Gevorg)
is one of the most significant religious and cultural landmarks for the Armenian community in Georgia.
While the exact date of its construction remains debated, many scholars attribute its founding to 1251, possibly by a wealthy merchant named Umek from Erzurum who settled in Tiflis and married into a noble Armenian family; however, some sources suggest the church existed long before the 13th century and that Umek may have only rebuilt it, with some accounts dating its origins as early as 631.
Over the centuries, the cathedral has been restored and rebuilt several times, leaving visible traces of its long and layered history.
The church is built on a traditional plan of a partitioned, open cross with a rectangular perimeter. Like most of the churches in Tbilisi, it is built of brick. The church dome rests on the walls of the sanctuary apse and large pointed pylons. There are additional rooms on both sides of the apse. The 19th-century painting was restored in 1976–1977. The kankel in front of the apse of the altar is from the 19th century. Two triangular niches are cut into the eastern façade, and a fragment of a khachkar dated 1294 with an Arabic inscription is built into the northern façade.
Late 18th-century paintings by Hovnatan Hovnatanian decorate the church's interior. And between 1922 and 1923, Gevorg Bashinjaghian decorated the church's internal walls, the altar, and the walls in front of it, creating four large murals: Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, The Repentance of Judas, Jesus and the Boatmen, Harvest Time.
Since 1938, the church has served as the cathedral of the Armenian Apostolic Diocese of Georgia. Prominent Armenian figures are buried in the churchyard, including Sayat-Nova, the 18th-century singer, poet and court musician of King Erekle II, and Gevork Bashinjaghian, the painter of the Surb Gevorg Cathedral.
Saint George’s Church is a prominent landmark of Tbilisi, and a visit to the church is a great way to explore the city's rich history and culture.