 Bagrati Cathedral and Gelati Monastery were inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1994 for their outstanding universal value. The construction of Bagrati Cathedral, named after Bagrat III, the first king of united Georgia, began at the end of the tenth century and was completed early in the eleventh century. Although partly destroyed by the Ottomans in 1691, its ruins still remain in the centre of Kutaisi. Gelati Monastery, whose main buildings were erected between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries, is a well preserved complex with wonderful mosaics and wall paintings. The cathedral and monastery represent the flowering of medieval architecture in Georgia. The activities planned to celebrate the 900th anniversary of Gelati Monastery will help raise awareness of the importance to Georgia of heritage sites of this kind, thus paving the way for future efforts to safeguard World Heritage properties.
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United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization