Beyond that, the Byzantines were at that time involved in a relentless war with the Bulgarian Empire, limiting their actions to the west. But as soon as Bulgaria was conquered, and Al-Hakim was no more alive, Basil led his army against Georgia (1021). An exhausting war lasted for two years, and ended in a decisive Byzantine victory, forcing Giorgi to agree to a peace treaty, in which he had not only to abandon his claims to Tao, but to surrender several of his southwestern possessions to Basil, and to give his three-year-old son, Bagrat, as hostage. Following the peace treaty, Constantinople was visited by Catholicos-Patriarch Melchizedek I of Georgia, who gained Byzantine financial aid for the construction of "Svetitskhoveli" (literally, the "Living Pillar"), a major Orthodox cathedral in the eastern Georgian town of Mtskheta.