The ruined Mamatzminda church stands among trees in the village of İbrikli, formerly Ebrika, in the Borçka district of Artvin, part of the historical region of Klarceti; after the village it is also known as the İbrikli or Ebrika church. It is a medieval Georgian church from the time of the Bagratid dynasty. Its dedication is uncertain, but because scenes from the life of Saint Marine are painted inside, it has been suggested that it was hers and that its real name was Marinetzminda.
No construction date survives. Its features point to the 16th century at the latest, and Aleksandr Pavlinov, one of the founders of the study of Klarceti architecture, saw it in 1888 and placed it in that century; a 15th-century date is also possible, and the paintings are described as late 15th or early 16th century in style. What looks like several fragments of writing among the paintings is in fact one inscription, and it names the patrons: the church was built for Gulmana, wife of a feudal lord named Avdulma, and for their sons, under the supervision of the priest Papa Sasaparidze, by the architect Zakara Kibabidze.
The building is very small, with a free cross plan whose arms carry gabled roofs. Over the central space rises a cylindrical drum, tall for the size of the church and capped by a conical roof, with four narrow round-arched windows. The entrance is on the west; a barrel-vaulted western section leads into the main space, a square of 4.40 by 4.40 metres. The interior was painted throughout, and although the frescoes are badly damaged, many scenes can still be made out, together with their Greek and Georgian inscriptions.
In the last quarter of the 19th century the church was still intact, about 10 metres long and 5 wide, its frescoes sound and surrounded by very old vines and walnut trees. At that time the villagers explained why it had survived when most churches of Klarceti had been pulled down: a hoca who had complained to an Ottoman pasha that the Georgian villagers were secretly praying and lighting candles there climbed onto the roof with a sledgehammer, fell as soon as he struck the dome, and died where he landed, and nobody had dared touch the church since.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Artvin as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 2.8 °C in January to 21.3 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in December (87 mm) and lightest in August (29 mm). Long-term means for 1949-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
