Ilori Church

გიორგის ეკლესია) is a Medieval, originally Georgian Orthodox Church in the village of Ilori, in the Ochamchire Municipality of Abkhazia,[notes 1] Georgia.

During its long history, the church underwent several important architectural modifications and was repaired by Levan II Dadiani in the 17th century, only to be burnt down by Ottoman Turks in 1736.

According to French traveler Jean Chardin, who visited and wrote of the area in 1672, each year a young man aspiring to become a priest would steal an ox and smuggle it into the church in the middle of the night.

It accused the Abkhazian government of plastering parts of the exterior and the interior of the church that featured Georgian inscriptions and frescos, and of replacing the Georgian-style dome with a Russian-style one.

[3][6][7][8] Demur Bzhania, head of the Abkhazian Directorate for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, declared that the church's Priest had not coordinated the reconstruction with his office, and admitted that the placement of the dome would have to be corrected.

However, he defended the whitewashing of the walls, claiming that the interior had not been touched and that old photographs of the church's exterior did not show any Georgian inscriptions or murals.

[9] The issue was also raised by the Georgian delegation at the 25th meeting for incident prevention in Chuburkhinji on 22 February 2011, demanding a joint visit to the church.

Ilori Church now