Chlou Holy Cross Church

The Chlou Holy Cross Church (Georgian: ჭლოუს ჯვარი პატიოსანი, romanized: ch'lous jvari p'at'iosani) is a ruined medieval church in the village of Chlou in Abkhazia, an entity in the South Caucasus with a disputed political status.[1] It is located at the village of Chlou on the right bank of the Duabi river, 20 km north of the town of Ochamchire.

The church stands on a hill overlooking the river and is surrounded by a large defensive wall built of large pebbles. It is a hall-church design with a semi-circular apse on the east. The church walls have survived, but are gravely damaged. The vault has collapsed. The ruins are covered with shrubs of bushes. The church was likely built in the 14th or 15th century, but wall ornamentation may indicate an earlier date of the 11th-12th century.[2] A stone slab found in the ruins display a Georgian inscription in the asomtavruli script, which is dated roughly to the 14th century when the area was under the sway of the Dadiani family of Mingrelia. It commemorates a high-ranking nobleman (eristavt-eristavi) whose name is reconstructed as Ozbeg Dadiani.[3][4]