Abkhazia Temples: 5 Ancient Shrines & Georgian Motifs

The golden chalice of Bedia (height 12.5 cm, diameter 14 cm). The chalice was donated to the Bedia Monastery (10th century, Ochamchira) by Bagrat III, the first king of a united Georgia, who built the monastery. The chalice is kept in the Georgian State Museum of Art.

In Abkhazia, one of Georgia's oldest provinces, numerous Christian cultural monuments have been preserved.

The Lykhny Dormition Cathedral, a 10th-11th century cross-domed structure, is located 4 km from Gudauta. The walls of this cathedral are covered with 14th-century frescoes. There are Georgian inscriptions in Asomtavruli (the ancient Georgian alphabet). One of these inscriptions, in the southern part of the upper tier, reports the approach of a shaggy star—Halley's Comet—in 1066.

Between 967 and 975, the Abkhazian King Leon III built the Mokva Cathedral at the mouth of the Mokvistskali and Dvabi rivers. During the Middle Ages, manuscripts were produced and copied in the cathedral. It was here that the remarkable monument of Georgian culture, the Mokva Gospels, dating from 1301, was created. Today, the Gospels are housed in the repository of the National Center of Manuscripts of Georgia.

One of the significant monuments of Georgian architecture is the single-nave Ilori Church of St. George (11th century, Ochamchire Municipality). In 2010, local authorities carried out a restoration of the monument, which resulted in the loss of the building's Georgian character: the façade and interior were painted white, and the stones on the eastern façade with Georgian inscriptions were plastered over. The cathedral's ceiling was also replaced, with a dome installed that is completely different from the original.

Nine kilometers from Gulripshi, on an elevated plateau by the Kodori River, stands another monument of Georgian architecture: the Dranda Dormition Cathedral (6th-7th centuries). It is known that a monastery functioned here in the late 19th century. The monks established a thriving economy here: they opened a school, built a mill, a forge, a carpentry workshop, a printing house, and an infirmary. In 2006, by presidential decree, the Dranda Cathedral was designated an immovable cultural monument of national significance.

Read also

• Ancient Churches of Abkhazia: Mokvi, Ilori and Dranda
• Georgia Through the Ages: Cave Cities and Ancient Shrines