The Batumi Cathedral of the Mother of God was built from 1898 to 1903 by the Polish architect Aleksander Rogojski. The Zubalashvili brothers, Georgian Catholic businessmen and philanthropists, commissioned it and also served as main contractor. It began as a Roman Catholic church in the Gothic Revival style, with pointed arches, tall spires and carved stone detail.
The exterior is light-colored stone with two symmetrical towers, each with a steep spire, flanking the entrance, and large stained-glass windows. The interior is a single nave with rib-vaulted ceilings, and some original lancet windows and stone tracery survive.
The Soviet government closed the church in the 1930s, and it served as a high-voltage physics laboratory for decades. It was transferred to the Georgian Orthodox Church in 1989. It is now the seat of the bishop of Batumi and Lazeti, with an iconostasis and frescoes.
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