- TURY.CLUB
- Tourist Objects
- Georgia
- Batumi
- Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Batumi
At the request of the Catholics living in Batumi, and on the basis of the application of their Consulates in Batumi, in 1897, the Georgian benefactors, the Zubalashvili brothers, built the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The building was built in neo-Gothic style, it has three domes. The outer part is decorated with Gothic ornaments, on the right and left of the main entrance in the niches are statues of St. Nino and St. Andrew the First-Called. A characteristic feature of the cathedral are huge stained glass windows.
After the revolution, when Georgia entered the Soviet Union, the cathedral was confiscated by the government and given to various administrative and economic needs: there was an archive and a high-voltage laboratory. The Georgian public and believers have long fought for the return of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church. The great Georgian writer Konstantin Gamsakhurdia supported this initiative, and the well-known film director Tengiz Abuladze mentioned the situation with the cathedral in his film “Repentance”, which gave this problem national significance.
The public and the Georgian intelligentsia managed to start the restoration work in the cathedral, as well as the return of the cathedral of the Georgian Orthodox Church. May 16, 1989 the Batumi Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was consecrated by the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilya II. On this day, a festive baptism was held, during which 5,000 people were baptized. Batumi Cathedral was recognized as a cathedral. Today the Batumi Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the main cathedral of the Batumi and Laz diocese.
