The Church of the

Mother of God ''Theotokos'' (Greek: ) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are ''Dei Genitrix'' or ''Deipara'' (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"). Familiar English translations ar ...

( ka, ბათუმის ღვთისმშობლის სახელობის ეკლესია, ''batumis ghvtismshoblis sakhelobis eklesia'') in Batumi is a

Georgian Orthodox The Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს სამოციქულო ავტოკეფალური მართლმადიდებელი ეკლესია, tr), commonly ...

cathedral, originally built as a

Catholic church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

early in the 1900s. A Gothic Revival design, the church is located in the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

city of

Batumi Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ) is the second largest city of Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast of the Black Sea in Georgia's southwest. It is situated in a subtropical zone at the foot of t ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

's autonomous republic of Adjara. The church was built as a Roman Catholic church through the sponsorship of the Zubalashvili brothers, Georgian Catholic businessmen, between 1898 and 1902. During the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

period the church was closed and converted into a high-voltage laboratory. In 1989 the church was transferred to the Georgian Orthodox Church. The Roman Catholics in Batumi now use the Church of the Holy Spirit, a modern structure consecrated in 2000.Batumi: sights
Official website of Batumi. Retrieved on May 10, 2009

References

Churches completed in 1902 Georgian Orthodox cathedrals in Georgia (country) Churches in Batumi Tourist attractions in Adjara Former Roman Catholic church buildings 20th-century Eastern Orthodox church buildings 20th-century churches in Georgia (country) {{Georgia-EO-church-stub