ST. SAVIOR TSALENJIKHA CATHEDRAL

Superbly located at the foot of the Svanétie chain, the cathedral of Tsalendjikha is a beautiful carved grey stone building typical of the Mingréliennes churches. This high spiritual place of the Mingrélie was the official cathedral of the. It was built between the th and th centuries. Its interior is simply magnificent: it contains the largest cycle of frescoes in the late Byzantine was style that Georgia finds, sometimes regarded as one of the best examples in the world of this style.

These frescoes of the th century were carried out by an artist from Constantinople, Cyrus Emmanuel Eugenicus, who was brought specially by Vamek Dadiani. Tsalendjikha also contains the mortuary chapels of Dadiani princes. Nearby are the ruins of the castle of Des which was the main residence of the princes in the th and th centuries.