ITALIAN WRITER ANTONIO GALENGA ABOUT THE CONDITIONS OF THE RELIGIOUS CONFESSIONS IN GEORGIA

Abstract

Christianity, since it became the state religion of Georgia, played the very important role in the formation of the national identity. Many Georgian public figures and foreign visitors were emphasizing about it in their works. One of those persons were an Italian writer Antonio Carlo Napoleone Gallenga. In Autumn of the 1881, he had visited Georgia and gave us very important facts and information about religious conditions in our country.
A. Gallenga came to Georgia via Vladikavkaz. From here, he went in Crimea and then in Odessa. He described the impressions of this journey in his book “A Summer Tour in Russia”, which was published in London in 1882.
In the book author described his first impressions about Georgia. Besides the other themes, A. Gallenga gave us important information about religious conditions in our country and emphasized the very important role of Christian religion in the history of Georgia.
The descriptions and opinions of A. Gallenga about Georgia are very valuable, because Italian writer’s above-mentioned book is not widely-studied for the researchers of the history of our country.