Pitsunda

Pitsunda occupies a wooded promontory on the Black Sea coast, the site of ancient Pityous. Its great domed cathedral, built at the end of the tenth century, became the seat of the Catholicos of Abkhazia, whose authority extended across western Georgia. The church's painted walls and substantial masonry stand among the remains of a much older coastal settlement known to Greek and Roman writers.

In the late sixteenth century, as Ottoman influence spread along the coast, the catholicos moved his residence to Gelati. The cathedral nevertheless retained its ceremonial importance. The traveller Jean Chardin reported that the catholicos returned with bishops and princes to consecrate holy chrism, preserving a link between the old coastal see and the church's new inland seat.