Tbilisi Sioni Cathedral

Tbilisi Sioni Cathedral tickets: which one to buy

Sioni Cathedral, the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Virgin, stands on Sioni Street in the old town of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, near the Mtkvari river and the Peace Bridge, and entry is free. It was the main cathedral of the Georgian Orthodox Church for centuries, until the new Holy Trinity Cathedral was completed in 2004, and it keeps one of the most sacred relics in Georgia, the cross of Saint Nino.

The cathedral is on every walking tour of Old Tbilisi, together with the Anchiskhati Basilica, the oldest church in the city, the Narikala Fortress, reached by cable car, the sulphur baths of Abanotubani, the Gabriadze Puppet Theatre with its crooked clock tower, and the bars and restaurants of the old streets. The cathedral is active, with services every day, and visitors should dress modestly: women cover their heads and wear skirts, which can be borrowed, and men wear long trousers. Photography during services is discouraged. The cathedral is small and often crowded with worshippers, who light candles and kiss the icons, and it offers a sense of everyday Georgian Orthodox life.

Visiting Tbilisi Sioni Cathedral: what to see

The first church was built here in the sixth and seventh centuries, and the cathedral was destroyed and rebuilt many times during invasions by Arabs, Khwarazmians, Mongols, Persians and Turks, with major rebuilding in the twelfth century and later. The present building dates largely from the seventeenth century, although it keeps its medieval form, a cross-in-square church with a central dome, built of yellow-grey stone with carved decoration. It was damaged again by the Persian army in 1795 and restored in the nineteenth century. Inside, the walls are covered with frescoes painted in the 1850s by the Russian artist Grigory Gagarin, who adapted the Byzantine tradition.

The cathedral's most venerated relic is the grapevine cross of Saint Nino, the woman who converted Georgia to Christianity in the fourth century; according to tradition, she made it from vine branches bound with her own hair, and it is kept in a reliquary to the left of the iconostasis. The cathedral also holds the tombs of Georgian patriarchs and of Russian officials of the nineteenth century. Beside the cathedral stand two bell towers: a medieval one from the fifteenth century and a neoclassical one built in the nineteenth century, one of the first examples of Russian classicism in Georgia.

Tbilisi Sioni Cathedral opening hours and the best time to go

The cathedral is open daily from early morning to evening, and services are held in the morning and evening. Spring and autumn are the best seasons in Tbilisi, with warm days, and summer is hot. The feast of the Dormition on 28 August and the feast of Saint Nino on 27 January and 1 June bring crowds. Tbilisoba, the city festival in October, fills the old town with celebrations. Services with Georgian polyphonic chanting are moving to attend. Allow about half an hour for the cathedral, and continue to the Anchiskhati Basilica nearby.