Abkhazian SSR. Pitsunda Cathedral

sent by Lena from Moscow in Russia. This postcard shows an 11th-century Pitsunda Church in Abkhazia.

This is from Wikipedia : Pitsunda Cathedral is a Georgian Orthodox Cathedral located in Pitsunda, in the Gagra district of the de facto independent Republic of Abkhazia, internationally recognised to constitute a part of Georgia.

Pitsunda Cathedral was built at the end of the 10th century by King Bagrat III of Georgia. It served as the seat of the Georgian Orthodox Catholicate of Abkhazia until the late 16th century when Abkhazia came under the Ottoman hegemony. The cathedral contains vestiges of wall-painting from the 13th and the 16th centuries.