Mokva Cathedral, Eastern Orthodox cathedral in Mokvi, Abkhazia.

Mokva Cathedral is a cross-domed church built into a rectangular outer wall, with three projecting apses on the east side. The central apse is horseshoe-shaped inside and five-sided outside. The dome rests on four columns at the center, and the low twelve-sided drum is reached through squinches. The facades are plain, without ornament, and the building is faced with cut stone.

Mokva Cathedral was built in the third quarter of the 10th century under King Leon III of Abkhazia, who was buried here in 967. An inscription recorded by Patriarch Dositheus II of Jerusalem in 1659 states that the church was repaired and painted under Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and King David IV of Georgia. Abandoned at the end of the 17th century, it was repaired in the 1850s as the burial church of the Shervashidze princes.

Mokva was the seat of a bishopric founded in the 10th century, and from the 13th century it grew into one of the most important centres of Georgian culture. Bishops such as Grigol Mokveli, Daniel Mokveli and Euthymius Saqvarelidze worked here, and the names of Mokva's clergy survive in manuscripts copied in its scriptorium. The cathedral is now used again for services of the Abkhaz Orthodox Church and as a site visited by tourists.

Visitors need to check local access requirements before planning a trip to this location, as the region has specific entry procedures. Getting proper authorization through official channels is an important first step before traveling to the area.

The Mokva Gospels, copied in 1300 by the monk Ephrem on the order of Bishop Daniel of Mokva, survive from the cathedral's scriptorium. Of the church's many inscriptions only one remains, on the bell tower. Marble tombstones of Prince Mikhail Shervashidze, the last ruling prince of Abkhazia, and his wife Alexandra Dadiani stand before the altar, carved in the Georgian asomtavruli script.