Soterioupolis (; "City of the Saviour") or Soteropolis (Σωτηρόπολις) was a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

fortress in the southeastern

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

coast during the 10th–12th centuries. The name has been suggested to apply to two different localities,

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 ...

Abkhazia Abkhazia, officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a List of states with limited recognition, 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 cover ...

and

Borçka Borçka () is a town in Artvin Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey, on the border with Georgia. It is the seat of Borçka District.

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Byzantine town

According to the mid-10th century ''

De administrando imperio (; ) is a Greek-language work written by the 10th-century Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII. It is a domestic and foreign policy manual for the use of Constantine's son and successor, the Emperor Romanos II. It is a prominent example of Byz ...

'', Soterioupolis was located on the border with Abasgia, while seal finds attest that it was the capital of a border district or '' kleisoura''. The ''

Escorial Taktikon The ''Escorial Taktikon'' (other spellings: ''Escurial Taktikon'', ''Escorial Tacticon'', ''Escurial Tacticon''), also known as the ''Taktikon Oikonomides'' after Nicolas Oikonomides who first edited it, is a list of Byzantine Empire, Byzantine of ...

'', written in the 970s, mentions a "''

strategos ''Strategos'' (), also known by its Linguistic Latinisation, Latinized form ''strategus'', is a Greek language, Greek term to mean 'military General officer, general'. In the Hellenistic world and in the Byzantine Empire, the term was also use ...

'' of Soterioupolis or Bourzo", and the contemporary ''

Notitiae Episcopatuum The ''Notitiae Episcopatuum'' (singular: ''Notitia Episcopatuum'') were official documents that furnished for Eastern countries the list and hierarchical rank of the metropolitan and suffragan bishoprics of a church. In the Roman Church (the mos ...

'' record that it was the seat of an autonomous archbishopric. The site's identification has been disputed:

Alexander Kazhdan Alexander Petrovich Kazhdan (; 3 September 1922 – 29 May 1997) was a Soviet and American Byzantinist. Among his publications was the three-volume ''Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium'', a comprehensive encyclopedic work containing over than 5,000 ...

in the ''

Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium The ''Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium'' (ODB) is a three-volume historical dictionary published by the English Oxford University Press. With more than 5,000 entries, it contains comprehensive information in English on topics relating to the Byzan ...

'' dismisses the suggestions expressed by various authors for an identification with

Sukhumi Sukhumi or Sokhumi is a city in a wide bay on the Black Sea's eastern coast. It is both the Capital city, capital and largest city of Abkhazia, a partially recognised state that most countries consider a part of Georgia (country), Georgia. The ...

, and considers Soterioupolis to have been a single site. Werner Seibt and Ivan Jordanov, on the other hand, distinguish between the various references of the name, equating the Soterioupolis of the ''De administrando imperio'' with Pitsunda, which in the mid-11th century formed part of a military command with nearby Anakopia, securing Byzantine presence in coastal Abkhazia and the northwestern Caucasus in general, where Byzantium had commercial and strategic interests. The seat of the ''strategos'' of the ''Escorial Taktikon'', however, is considered to be located further south, at the fortress Bourzo (identified by

Nicolas Oikonomides Nikolaos or Nikos Oikonomides (, 14 February 1934 – 31 May 2000) was a Greeks, Greek Byzantinist, and one of the leading experts in the field of Byzantine aristocracy and bureaucracy, Byzantine administration. Biography Oikonomides was born i ...

and B. Baumgartner with modern

Borçka Borçka () is a town in Artvin Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey, on the border with Georgia. It is the seat of Borçka District.

in Turkey), to which are to be attributed the seals of the ''kleisourarches'' of Soteropolis, as well as the references preserved in the collection of miracles of Saint

Eugenios of Trebizond Saint Eugenios () or Eugene was martyred under Diocletian and a cult devoted to him developed in Trabzon, Trebizond. His feast day is 21 January. Eugenios along with the martyrs Candidus, Valerian and Aquila was persecuted during the reign of Diocl ...

, according to which the ''strategos'' was a subordinate of the '' doux'' of

Chaldia Chaldia (, ''Khaldia'') was a historical region located in the mountainous interior of the eastern Black Sea, northeast Anatolia (modern Turkey). Its name was derived from a people called the ''Chaldoi'' (or '' Chalybes'') that inhabited the reg ...

Titular see

In modern times, the town has been a

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbi ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, as the Archdiocese of Soteropolis. First awarded in 1932, it has had seven holders and has been vacant since 6 October 2005, with the death of its last incumbent,

Ettore Cunial Ettore Cunial (November 16, 1905 – October 6, 2005) was an Italian prelate. Born in Possagno in the Province of Treviso on 16 November 1905, Cunial was ordained priest in 1929 and ordained bishop in 1953. In 1953, his appointment as Titul ...

References

Sources

* * {{coords, 43, 6, N, 40, 16, E, display=title Byzantine forts Byzantine Pontus Catholic titular sees in Asia Populated places of the Byzantine Empire History of Abkhazia