Chabukauri Basilica

Chabukauri basilica is an early Christian church—now in a ruinous state—in the eastern Georgian region of Kakheti, in the territory of the historical settlement of Nekresi, about 1.5 km northwest of the Nekresi monastic complex [1]. It is a large three-aisle basilica, dated to the 4th to 5th century, making it one of the earliest Christian church buildings in Georgia [1]. The Chabukauri basilica was unearthed in an eponymous plot in 1998 and was dated to the 4th or 5th century [1]. Nodar Bakhtadze, who excavated Chabukauri, identifies the basilica with a church known from the early medieval Georgian chronicles to have been founded at Nekresi by King Trdat of Kartli (r. c. 394 – 406) [1]. Chabukauri is a three-nave basilica, measuring 33.4 x 15 m [1]. It was built of large limestone blocks, sledged stones, and gravel [1]. The naos is divided into three naves by five pairs of rectangular-shaped pillars [1]. The building had three entrances, on the south, west, and north [1].