Old cathedrals in Abkhazia that are worth attention. The Bedian Cathedral.

According to historical data, the Cathedral of the Mother of God was built by order of the first tsar of the united Georgia Bagrat III Bagrationi (978-1014), who made it an episcopal center. Bagrat III himself and his mother Gurandukht are buried in this monastery. In the interior of the temple, three layers of fresco painting have been preserved, which date back to the X-XI, XIII-XIV and XVI-XVII centuries. Among them is a fresco on the eastern part of the southern wall, which depicts the cathedral's curator Bagrat III with a model of the temple in his hands and representatives of the Dadiani family. The Diocese of Bedia was one of the most important ecclesiastical and cultural and educational centers in the Middle Ages.

To the east of the cathedral there is a two-storey palace of the Bedian metropolitans (it was built at the behest of the Bedian Metropolitan Anton Zhuanisdze), and to the north, opposite the gate, there is a bell tower (XIV century). The Bedian monastery was restored in the XIII-XIV centuries.

The Bediysky monastery also includes a golden, 14 cm., chalice - a church cup made of red gold. The height of the chalice is 12.5 cm, the diameter of the foot for the chalice stand is lost. The outer surface of the chalice is divided into 12 arched parts. Images of saints are placed under each arch. Under the opposite arches, Jesus Christ and the Mother of God with the baby are depicted. On the upper part of the chalice there is a one-line inscription in the ancient Georgian alphabet - "asomtavruli", from which we learn that the chalice was made by order of Bagrat III and his mother Gurandukht, who then donated the chalice to the Bedi monastery. The Bedian chalice is kept in the State Museum of Art of Georgia.