Dolochopi basilica

The church was built of rubble and gravel.^[4] It was a large triple basilica, measuring 36 x 18.5 metres in its central three–nave section, but had further aisles added to both north and south, bringing the edifice to the total size of 44 x 27 metres.^[3][5] This made Dolochopi the largest basilica known in Georgia and one of the largest in the Caucasus and neighboring regions of Eastern Christendom.^[6] The division of the naos into three naves was effected by five pairs of cruciform columns. The central nave terminated in a horseshoe-shaped sanctuary apse on the east. The apse was furnished with a four-stepped synthronon—a bench reserved for the clergy—a feature unattested elsewhere in Georgia except at Chabukauri.^[7] Beneath it, in the centre of the apse, was a large tomb compartment. Before the altar there was a spacious bema with a soleas. The easternmost portion of the gallery was occupied by a baptistery. The church was covered by a wooden roof with terracotta tiles, held in place with iron nails and antefixes.^[8][3]

The basilica is dated, on architectural and archaeological grounds, to the middle of the 5th century. It is built over an earlier church, 25 metres in length and about 15 metres in width.^[8][9] A sample obtained from this earliest layer is carbon dated to AD 387.^[10] It was probably destroyed in an earthquake at the same time as the church at Chabukauri. The superimposed 5th-century basilica was also damaged in a later earthquake. The nave and the church's immediate premises continued to be used as a burial ground. The northeastern corner of the church was adapted in the 8th or 9th century as a mortuary chapel which remained functional until at least the 12th–13th century.^[8]

The discoveries at Chabukauri and Dolochopi challenged a previous assumption that the first church buildings in eastern Georgia were typically small narrow edifices built to accommodate a limited number of people.^[11] Architecturally, the Dolochopi church was a local precursor to a triple basilica design, peculiar for Georgia.^[12] Aspects of overall design of the church and roofing as well the lighting fixtures uncovered at the site are typical Eastern Roman features, while some details of layout of the apse and numismatic finds at the site point to Sasanian influences.^[13]

• Mamiashvili, vazha (2019) Volume 13". Archaeological Research upon the Earliest Christian Settlement in Nekresi/ადრეული ქრისტიანობის არქეოლოგიური კვლევა ნაქალაქარ ნეკრეში. vol. 13, no. 4. georgian: BULLETIN OF THE GEORGIAN NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES,. pp. 186–191. ISSN 0132-1447. https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85077363986&origin=AuthorNamesList&txGid=6f00e8ec72308d2b963ad2460b3d1365
• Bakhtadze, Nodar; Mamiashvili, Vazha; Gabekhadze, Bachana (2015). "დოლოჭოპის ბაზილიკის არქეოლოგიური კვლევა ნაქალაქარ ნეკრესში" [The Dolochopi Basilica: Archeological Research in the Nekresi Former City] (PDF). Online Archaeology (in Georgian). 8: 110–133.
• Loosley Leeming, Emma (2018). Architecture and Asceticism: Cultural Interaction between Syria and Georgia in Late Antiquity. Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity, Volume: 13. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-37531-4.