History
Archaeological finds prove that the City Mtskheta was inhabited from the 2nd millennium BC until the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. Numerous burials from the Bronze Age (early 1st millennium BC) attest to the importance of Mtskheta during this period. According to Georgian chronicles, the city was founded in the 5th century BC by Mtskheto, son of Kartlo. From the 3rd century BC to the 5th century AD, Mtskheta was the capital of the Kingdom of Iberia.
At that time, the city was heavily fortified, with walls along the Mtkvari River and three fortresses. Mtskheta played an important role in the Christianisation of Iberia in 337 and remained the headquarters of the Georgian Orthodox Church. The city was culturally developed, as evidenced by a tombstone from the late 4th and early 5th century with a Greek inscription by the chief architect Aurelius Acholis. In the first years after Christianisation, a small wooden church was built, which later became the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral.
By the 5th century AD, the church was no longer sufficient for the growing community, and Vakhtang Gorgasali built the largest church in Georgia, Svetitskhoveli, dedicated to the Assumption of Mary. In the 5th century, the first Catholicos was elected, who had his seat in Svetitskhoveli. In the 11th century, the old basilica became too small and Catholicos Melchisedek I had a new church built. In the Middle Ages, King Dachi of Iberia moved the capital from Mtskheta to Tbilisi at the beginning of the 6th century.
Nevertheless, Mtskheta remained the coronation and burial place of most Georgian kings until the end of the kingdom in the 19th century. The city was destroyed by the Umayyads in the 8th century and by Timur in the 15th. When Georgia became part of Russia in 1801, Mtskheta was little more than a village.
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