ICOMOS Georgia Social Media Campaign to celebrate 18th of April 2020 theme – Shared Culture, Shared Heritage, Shared Responsibility! 

Author: Manana Suramelashvili

“People are born only with pure nature, and only then fathers make them Jews, Christians or fire worshipers” – Saadi.

Oni Synagogue, Akhaltsikhe Rabati Mosque and Madrasa

History of humanity is full of stories about peoples’ settlement examples on the foreign lands. These kinds of experiences are well-known to us as well and that is how we became sharers and responsible for the foreign heritage.

Built in 1895, Synagogue in Oni is distinguished with its size and artistic value in the Caucasus. It has similarities to the big Synagogue of Warsaw exploded by fascists in 1943. In 1930ies, during communist repressions, Synagogue in Oni was also under the threat, but it has been preserved with the joint efforts and sacrifice of Jewish and Georgians. Nowadays, even 10 Jewish cannot gather in Oni in order to hold a religious service in the Synagogue… In older times, there were thousands of Jewish people living in the area making the relationships colourful.

Similar sad situation can be encountered in Akhaltsikhe as well, where there are two Synagogues in Rabati District and only three Jewish Families.

Here, in Rabati Castle, which was passed into the hands of the Ottomans in XVIII, there are remarkable late Ottoman architectural landmarks – Madrasa and Mosque (1747-1752) built under the order of Beglarbeg Haji-Ahmed Pasha. This building is mentioned by Frédéric Dubois de Montpéreux as an “architectural masterpiece”.