Sukhumi Cathedral

The Sukhumi Cathedral of the Annunciation is an Eastern Orthodox church in the city of Sukhumi, the capital of Abkhazia, an entity in the South Caucasus with a disputed political status.

[1] The cathedral was built in a Neo-Byzantine fashion by Sukhumi's then-vibrant Greek community between 1909 and 1915.

It was reconsecrated in the name of Annunciation and remained one of the few functioning churches on the territory of autonomous Abkhazia throughout the Soviet period.

In the 1980s, the church was significantly refurbished and its premises expanded under the Georgian Orthodox metropolitan bishop David Chkadua.

[5] From the point of the Georgian government, the church is part of cultural heritage located in the Russian-occupied territories of Georgia.