Bagrati cathedral was built at the turn of the 10th–11th centuries, in the reign of Bagrat III (975–1014). According to the inscription on the north wall, "when the floor was laid firm, the chronicon was 223" (1003). It is a symbol of the country's unity and strength. The Matiane Kartlisai relates that for its consecration feast the king "gathered together all the neighboring sovereigns, the catholicoi, the hierarchs and the superiors of all the monasteries, and all the nobles, upper and lower, of his royal patrimony, and all the other rulers".