The Church of the Savior in Chazhashi is a small single nave church with an extended annex on the western side, located in the village of Chazhashi, part of the Ushguli community. Built in the 10th century, the church has historically served as the main place of worship for the Ushguli area. Traditionally, it housed the entire treasury of the churches of Ushguli—cross-icons made of metalwork and painting from various eras, large altar crosses, ritual items, and more. Today, most of this treasury has been relocated to the Ushguli Museum, located in one of the oldest fortified houses in Chazhashi.
The church's interior and northern façade are adorned with murals from the 17th century. Paintings from the same period are also found on both sides of the entrance from the annex into the main church—something very rare for Upper Svaneti.
The interior murals of the Church of Chazhashi are an important and noteworthy example of the final stage in the development of the Svanetian school of painting. This is especially evident in the unique conceptual approach of the wall painting, which feature a complex symbolic-theological program. The combined elements and clearly emphasized themes of this program in a way summarize all the knowledge revealed to mankind about the Lord—the Son of God, consubstantial with the Father. The complexity of the underlying theological ideas is characteristic of the period and aligns with broader trends seen in late medieval wall painting in other regions of Georgia.
Other features in the Chazhashi murals also reflect general artistic tendencies of the time: the use of unusual iconographic variations, a less traditional division of compositional registers, some inconsistencies in figure proportions and scene layouts, and specific styles of facial and clothing depiction. Particularly noteworthy is a highly unusual phenomenon that might be considered an example of the artist’s “iconographic creativity”: in the center of the chancel is a combined icon depicting both the “Face of God” and the “Dormition of the Mother of God” within a single image—something that, at least for now, has no known parallel in either Georgian or post-Byzantine art.
The mural on the northern façade is severely damaged and fragmentary, but it once included scenes from the heroic epic of "Amiran-Darejaniani." Depicting secular themes in church painting is extremely rare; however, a parallel can be found in another Upper Svanetian church, the Taringzel Church of Lashkhveri, dating to the turn of the 14th–15th centuries.
Useful information
| Location | The church is located in the center of the village |
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| The Key Holder | The key is kept with Emzar Nizaradze |
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