The Cathedral of St. Andrew the Apostle (), also known as the Pitsunda Cathedral () or Bichvinta Cathedral ( ka, ბიჭვინთის ტაძარი, tr) is an

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...

Cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

located in

Pitsunda Pitsunda or Bichvinta ( ka, ბიჭვინთა, ; ; ) is a resort town in the Gagra District of Abkhazia/Georgia. Founded by Greek colonists in the 5th century BC, Pitsunda became an important political and religious centre of the region i ...

, in the

Gagra District Gagra District is a district of Abkhazia. It corresponds to the Administrative divisions of Georgia (country), Georgian district by the same name. In medieval times, it was known as the southern part of Sadzen. It is located in the western part of ...

of the de facto independent

Republic of Abkhazia Abkhazia, officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia. It covers and has a population of around 245,000 ...

, internationally recognised as constituting a part of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. The cathedral is currently used by the schismatic

Abkhazian Orthodox Church The Abkhazian Orthodox Church (, ) is an Eastern Orthodox church outside the official Eastern Orthodox ecclesiastical hierarchy. It came into existence when the ''Sukhumi-Abkhazian Eparchy'' declared on 15 September 2009 that it no longer consid ...

and serves as that body's seat, although this usage is disputed by the

Georgian Orthodox Church The Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს სამოციქულო ავტოკეფალური მართლმადიდებელი ეკლესია, tr), commonl ...

and is considered irregular by the

communion generally. Pitsunda Cathedral was built at the end of the 10th century by King

Bagrat III of Georgia Bagrat III ( ka, ბაგრატ III) (c. 960 – 7 May 1014), also known as Bagrat the Unifier, of the Bagrationi dynasty, was the king ('' mepe'') of the Kingdom of Abkhazia from 978 on (as Bagrat II of Abkhazia) and king of the Kingdom of ...

. It served as the seat of the

Georgian Orthodox The Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს სამოციქულო ავტოკეფალური მართლმადიდებელი ეკლესია, tr), commonl ...

Catholicate of Abkhazia The Catholicate of Abkhazia ( ka, აფხაზეთის საკათალიკოსო, tr) was a subdivision of the Georgian Orthodox Church that existed as an independent entity in western Georgia from the 1470s to 1814. It was headed ...

until the late 16th century when Abkhazia came under the Ottoman hegemony. According to 17th century French traveller

Jean Chardin Jean Chardin (16 November 1643 – 5 January 1713), born Jean-Baptiste Chardin, and also known as Sir John Chardin, was a French jeweller and traveller whose ten-volume book ''The Travels of Sir John Chardin'' is regarded as one of the finest ...

, Catholicos, who no longer lived in Pitsunda, visited the cathedral once a year with the retinue of bishops and princes to perform the sanctification of

chrism Chrism, also called ''myrrh'', ''myron'', ''holy anointing oil'', and consecrated oil, is a consecrated oil used in the Catholic Church, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox, Assyrian C ...

.Акты собранные Кавказскою Археографическою Комиссиею (''Acts of Caucasian Archeographic Commission''), v. 5, pp. 1069-1070, cited by The cathedral was reconsecrated in 1869 when Abkhazia was already a part of Russian Empire. It is a cross-domed cathedral with three naves and three apses, shaped as a rectangle with extending semicircular apses. It holds a pipe organ from the

Alexander Schuke Carl Alexander Schuke (14 August 1870 – 16 November 1933) was a German organ builder and from 1894 to 1933 owner and manager of the . The company still exists today. Life Born in , Kingdom of Prussia, Schuke was the son of the pastor Karl ...

factory in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

, Germany, installed in 1975. The cathedral is notable for its impressive size, reaching 29 m high (including the dome), 37 m long and 25 m wide; the walls are up to 1.5 m thick. The building rests on heavy slabs of grey sandstone; the walls are made up of alternating rows of stone and brickwork, a typical technique for late

Byzantine architecture Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire, or Eastern Roman Empire, usually dated from 330 AD, when Constantine the Great established a new Roman capital in Byzantium, which became Constantinople, until the Fall of Cons ...

. The cathedral contains vestiges of wall-painting from the 13th and the 16th centuries. A 12th-century Georgian manuscript of the Four Gospels, found at the cathedral in 1830, is now preserved at the

Georgian National Center of Manuscripts The Georgian National Centre of Manuscripts ( ka, საქართველოს ხელნაწერთა ეროვნული ცენტრი; formerly the ''Institute of Manuscripts''), located in Tbilisi, Georgia (country), Georg ...

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

Gallery

File:Abkhasie. Basilique de Pijzjounda. (1847).jpg, The Pitsunda Cathedral in 1847. Drawing by Grigory Gagarin File:Pitsunda Cathedral window.jpg, Cathedral window File:Organ in Pitsunda.jpg, Cathedral organ

Notes

References

External links

Photos of the Pitsunda Cathedral

Organ of Pitsunda. Official site
!--Russian--> Georgian Orthodox cathedrals in Georgia (country) Temples in Gagra Municipality 10th-century churches in Georgia (country) Immovable Cultural Monuments of National Significance of Georgia Orthodox cathedrals in Abkhazia {{abkhazia-stub