Bedia Cathedral

The extant edifices, however, date back to the 13th-14th centuries and include a domed cruciform church, a belltower resting upon the northern narthex and the ruins of an old palace. The southern wall of the main church contains fragments of contemporary murals, including the portraits of Bagrat II and the representatives of the Dadiani noble family of Georgia. In the Catholicate of Abkhazia, Bedia was the centre of a diocese and the seat of a bishop. In the 17th century, services were ceased, but resumed from the second half of the 19th century onwards. As evidenced by the historic sources, complex was erected in late 10th century, c. 999, by Bagrat III, the first king of the united Georgian Kingdom, who, as stated by the Georgian chronicler, “made a Bishop out of it”. The church of the Virgin, erected in the centre of the monastic courtyard, is the main church of the monastery. To its west is the two-storied palace of metropolitans of Bedia. The church of the Virgin was considerably transformed between 13th to 15th centuries.