Tsalenjikha

Above Tsalenjikha in Mingrelia stands the Church of the Savior, a domed Georgian church closely associated with the Dadiani princes. A church existed here by the thirteenth century, and the remains of a large residence nearby suggest a connection with the family's court. From the fifteenth to the late seventeenth century it served as a favored burial place of the Dadiani.

In the late fourteenth century Vameq Dadiani commissioned a magnificent program of wall paintings. A Greek and Georgian inscription records that he summoned the artist Manuel Eugenikos from Constantinople; the resulting frescoes brought Byzantine and Georgian traditions together. Saint George, patron of the Dadiani, appears beside portraits of the princely family. In the seventeenth century Bishop Eudemon Jaiani had older paintings repaired, while Prince Levan II Dadiani added a chapel decorated with further murals.