Sioni Cathedral

Sioni cathedral is situated in historic Sioni Kucha (Sioni Street)
in downtown Tbilisi, with its eastern façade fronting the right
embankment of the river Mtkvari. It was initially built in the 6th-
7th centuries and was multiply restored. Sioni Cathedral was the
main Goergian Orthodox Cathedral and the seat of Catholics Patriarch of all Georgia until the Holy Trinity Cathedral was concentrated in 2004. However, it still holds the venerated
Grapevine cross (exhibited at the left of the altar) forged by
St. Nino, a Cappadocian woman who preached Christianity in
Georgia in the early 4th century. Sioni Cathedral was the place
where the Russian Imperial manifesto on the annexation of
Georgia was first published on April 12, 1802, when the Russian
commander-in-chief in Georgia, General Karl von Knorring,
assembled the Georgian nobles in the Cathedral surrounded by
Russian troops. The nobles were forced to take an oath to the
Russian Imperial crown and anyone into custody.Read more