Akhaltsikhe

On the way to Akhaltsikhe, I headed through the forested gorges of the Borjomi Nature Reserve to Borjomi Spa, where I visited the Borjomi Mineral Water Park or Ekaterina Park. Just outside the gates on the left-hand side, the last villa has a wonderful arabesque decoration on the ceiling of its balcony, built for the Persian consul in 1892. At the height of its popularity, Borjomi used to fill over 300 million bottles annually and was one of the main mineral waters of the Soviet Union. The former bottling plant now houses a library. Nearby, under a pavilion, two ladies dispense free Borjomi water from taps into plastic cups for anyone who wants to try this salty tasting water. A cable car that takes visitors to the Sadgeri Arboretum on the plateau above the park. This arboretum covers 136 hectares and is laid out for spa visitors to go on long invigorating walks through the forest.  

Akhaltsikhe is a charming town which translates literally to ‘new fortress’. The imposing fortress dominates the skyline. Its old streets are home to a large Armenian population, and the forests just outside the town hide the beautiful 10th-century Saphara Monastery. 

The original name of the fortress in the 9th century was Lomsia, meaning “Lion” in Georgian. At the end of the 12th century, Lomsia gained the new name Akhal-tsikhe. Rabati was the name given to the trading quarter of the fortress, where mainly Jewish merchants and artisans lived. Down the years, the name Akhaltsikhe became the name of the town and the name Rabati applied to the fortress itself. 

Rabati Castle looks splendid because in May 2011 a major restoration project took place and many buildings destroyed in previous battles and sieges were rebuilt. As part of the project, the Akhmediye Mosque, the minaret, the madrasah, the Jakeli castle, the baths, the citadel, the walls of the fortress and the Orthodox Church were all renovated and / or reconstructed. The fountains play, the water runs, and the flowers bloom in the sunlight. 

I headed down the steps from the castle and decided I would like to have a very late lunch or early dinner at one restaurant that said it was open. There was no one around, so I found a menu and decided what I’d like to eat and drink. The waitress / owner came out from a backroom and stared at me. I mimed eating, and she pointed at a table – I was the only person there, so there was quite a choice – and I sat down. After she took my order, I got the impression they were surprised I was there, but the food appeared quickly and was delicious, so I can have no complaints.

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Telavi and the way to Azerbaijan

If you’re heading towards Azerbaijan, then there are several places to visit on the way to the border. The first is the city of Telavi. 

Telavi is unusual because it has four citadels, the 17th-century Batonistsikhe, the 9th- / 10th-century Dzveli Galavani, the 16th-century Korchibashishvilebis Tsikhe and the 18th-century Vakhvakhishvilebis. There are still some quaint old streets and houses with wooden balconies in this city. 

The large Freedom Square is a good place to start with the Batonistsikhe citadel on one side, recently renovated including the palace of King Erekle II built in the Persian style in the 1750s, two churches, a pantheon, the last resting place of many local notables, and royal baths. By the east gate of the citadel is an equestrian statue of Erekle II. I headed downhill to see the 900-year-old plane tree.

There are many wineries and vineyards in this part of Georgia and one of the more unusual ones is at Alaverdi Monastery, 18 kilometres north of Telavi. The St. George Cathedral here dates from the first half of the 11th century and is in the Alazani River valley. There have been buildings on this site since the 6th century AD. A monk called Joseph, who came from Antioch and settled in Alaverdi, when it was a pagan religious centre dedicated to the Moon, founded the Monastery. 

Wine making has a special significance here at the monastery as this was one of the few places in the Soviet Union where knowledge of traditional wine-making techniques was kept alive when the Soviets banned anything but industrial wine production. The monks have opened up an 11th-century cellar and are making their wines available again with the help of the Badagoni wine company. 

The reason to go to Gremi is to see the citadel, whose church is a great example of the Georgian adaptation of Persian styles of architecture with its patterned brickwork. In the citadel, not only is there the Church of Archangels Michael and Gabriel but also a three-storey castle and a bell tower, all encircled by a curtain wall. The Church of the Archangels was constructed at the behest of King Levan of Kakheti (1520–1574) in 1565 and the frescoes were completed by 1577. Today, Gremi is a village but there was a city here in the 6th Century AD and it was the capital of the Kakheti region from 1466 until 1616 when it was laid waste by Shah Abbas. The museum by the main road – the other side of the underpass from the car park – has many lovely items, including daggers from the 2nd millennium BC and ceramics from the 4th Century BC. 

Gori and the Caucasus

Stalin’s original Georgian name was Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili. The Russian equivalent of this is Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. During his years as a revolutionary, he adopted the alias “Stalin”, and after the October Revolution, he made it his legal name, so he became Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin.

Stalin is probably the most famous person born in the country of Georgia and my next stop was at the Soviet-style town of Gori, where Stalin was born. Here, I visited the museum – it’s a shrine really and learned about his life. 

I’m sure most people know that Stalin initially began training as a priest in the Georgian Seminary before abandoning religion to become a brigand and join the new Bolshevik movement. It’s been suggested that Georgia escaped the worst horrors of Stalin’s regime because he was afraid of his conservative Christian mother. You must remember that in Stalin’s case, “escaping the horrors of Stalin’s regime” still means 80,000 Georgians were shot, 800,000 were deported, and 400,000 were killed during the period of the Great Patriotic War between 1941 and 1945. With Stalin, statistics quickly lose their impact. 

The Stalin Museum itself is really fascinating though I’d start outside with the place of his birth, which is preserved under a glass-roofed Doric temple. Lavrenti Beria, a fellow Georgian who was the longest-serving and most brutal of Stalin’s secret police chiefs, erected this temple. He wielded his most substantial influence during and after World War II. Following the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, he organised purges such as the Katyn massacre of 22,000 Polish officers and officials. As soon as Stalin died, Beria was living on borrowed time. He was executed at the end of 1953, barely six months after Stalin died. 

Stalin’s private railway carriage is worth seeing too. The fittings are basic, but comfortable. The carriage has six axles to bear the weight of the armour plating.

Entering the interior of the museum is like stepping back into the days of the Soviet Union. The decor is drab, there are offices with signs for the most menial of tasks, and the lighting is subdued. Individuals may not walk around on their own. There are guided tours given by people who have answers to all your questions, even though those answers don’t come close to the truth. I declined the opportunity to buy a Stalin fridge magnet or a mug with his face on it. To be fair, in 2010 the museum opened a mock secret police cell in the basement providing limited coverage of The Terror, the resettlement of people, and the expulsions to the gulags. This is a sort of balance I suppose.

Vardzia

Vardzia is one of Georgia’s most significant sites. 

First though, if you’re coming from the Akhaltsikhe direction, stop at Khertvisi Fortress, dramatically sited on a cliff above the confluence of the Paravani and Mtkvari Rivers. It’s one of the oldest fortresses in Georgia, dating back to the 2nd Century BC, at least according to the 11th century Georgian chronicler Leonti Mroveli. He argued Khertvisi was one of the oldest Georgian towns. We have little knowledge about Khertvisi until mediaeval times. The structures that still exist today date back to the 10th-14th centuries.

After the Kingdom of Georgia disintegrated, Khertvisi belonged to the noble Jakeli family that ruled the local region known as Samtskhe-Atabegate. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, this area was part of the Ottoman Empire. Khertvisi returned to Georgia in 1828. The fortress comprises a citadel with curtain walls, towers, and a lower yard. There are two tunnels from the north leading down to the river, so the fortress could have a water supply.

Vardzia is cut into a towering cliff and was established as a stronghold against the Turkish Sultanate (the Turkish border is only 10 kilometres away) by King Georgi III in the 12th century. Vardzia was subsequently developed by his daughter, Tamar, who created a cave monastery that became a centre of Georgian culture. This network of caves above the Mtkvari (Kura) River once numbered 3000, with up to 19 tiers in some places. Much of it was destroyed after a huge earthquake in 1456 and only 550 caves have been discovered since. There are many churches, meeting halls, refectories, and wine cellars, all interconnected by tunnels and stairways. Some of these stairs are steep and not of a consistent width, so you might have to watch your step when descending. 

Akhaltsikhe

On the way to Akhaltsikhe, I headed through the forested gorges of the Borjomi Nature Reserve to Borjomi Spa, where I visited the Borjomi Mineral Water Park or Ekaterina Park. Just outside the gates on the left-hand side, the last villa has a wonderful arabesque decoration on the ceiling of its balcony, built for the Persian consul in 1892. At the height of its popularity, Borjomi used to fill over 300 million bottles annually and was one of the main mineral waters of the Soviet Union. The former bottling plant now houses a library. Nearby, under a pavilion, two ladies dispense free Borjomi water from taps into plastic cups for anyone who wants to try this salty tasting water. A cable car that takes visitors to the Sadgeri Arboretum on the plateau above the park. This arboretum covers 136 hectares and is laid out for spa visitors to go on long invigorating walks through the forest.  

Akhaltsikhe is a charming town which translates literally to ‘new fortress’. The imposing fortress dominates the skyline. Its old streets are home to a large Armenian population, and the forests just outside the town hide the beautiful 10th-century Saphara Monastery. 

The original name of the fortress in the 9th century was Lomsia, meaning “Lion” in Georgian. At the end of the 12th century, Lomsia gained the new name Akhal-tsikhe. Rabati was the name given to the trading quarter of the fortress, where mainly Jewish merchants and artisans lived. Down the years, the name Akhaltsikhe became the name of the town and the name Rabati applied to the fortress itself. 

Rabati Castle looks splendid because in May 2011 a major restoration project took place and many buildings destroyed in previous battles and sieges were rebuilt. As part of the project, the Akhmediye Mosque, the minaret, the madrasah, the Jakeli castle, the baths, the citadel, the walls of the fortress and the Orthodox Church were all renovated and / or reconstructed. The fountains play, the water runs, and the flowers bloom in the sunlight. 

I headed down the steps from the castle and decided I would like to have a very late lunch or early dinner at one restaurant that said it was open. There was no one around, so I found a menu and decided what I’d like to eat and drink. The waitress / owner came out from a backroom and stared at me. I mimed eating, and she pointed at a table – I was the only person there, so there was quite a choice – and I sat down. After she took my order, I got the impression they were surprised I was there, but the food appeared quickly and was delicious, so I can have no complaints.

Batumi

Batumi is Georgia’s attractive summer capital that sits on the shores of the Black Sea. It attracts visitors from both Turkey and Russia, though the Russians you may meet are probably living there to escape the likelihood of being drafted into Putin’s armed forces. Russians drive the price of almost everything upwards and are resented by the Georgians, although there’s little they can do about it other than write profane graffiti on public walls. 

I began my visit by walking through the Batumi Botanical Garden along the main path that gradually descends towards the Black Sea with fine views along the coast. The Russian botanist Andrey Nikolayevich Krasnov (1862-1914) started these gardens, which were officially opened on 3rd November, 1912. The garden comprises the following botanical areas: the Caucasus, East Asia, New Zealand, South America, the Himalayas, Mexico, Australia, and the Mediterranean. Visitors can admire the parkland and the succulents, palms, roses, camellias, citrus, bamboos, magnolia, cypress, pine trees, persimmon, and maple tree collections. My understanding is that out of all these plants, the gardens are most proud of their camellia and rose collections. I admired the amazing bark of the Maritime Pine trees and the flowers of an unusual plant, Rhododendron Ponticum, a species of Rhododendron native to the Iberian Peninsula and to the Caucasus region, at opposite ends of the European continent.

In the city itself, I started my tour by visiting the Orta Jame mosque and then headed to the seafront promenade, walking past the chacha tower, a clock tower in a Moorish style that was originally meant to spout chacha, a strong Georgian brandy made of grape pomace (grape residue left after making wine), every evening for ten minutes. Thankfully, this idea never worked, and I can’t imagine what would have happened if it had, other than creating lots of alcoholics. From 2009, the Saakashvili government triggered a building boom in Batumi to turn the city into a Black Sea version of Las Vegas. I now saw the results in front of me. There’s a Ferris wheel of course and also the Ali and Nino statue. The Georgian artist Tamara Kvesitadze created this moving sculpture in 2010, whose metal artwork comprises two figures made of stacked segments. The two figures slide towards each other, briefly merging as their segments pass through each other, and come out the other side, never having truly connected.

Bagrati and Gelati

Close to Kutaisi are two important religious sights, Bagrati Cathedral and the UNESCO-listed monastery complex at Gelati.

Bagrati Cathedral is on the outskirts of Kutaisi and was commissioned by King Bagrati III in the year 1003 AD. Bagrati is buried in the cathedral. He is an important figure in Georgia as he was the first king of a united Georgia. The central dome is supported by four free-standing pillars. The western portico was added about thirty years after the original cathedral was completed with the southern and northern porticoes added in the twelfth century. Turkish forces destroyed the cathedral in 1691-92, leaving the cathedral roofless. 

Bagrati was an impressive ruin and UNESCO placed it on the World Heritage List in 1994. However, in 2008, President Saakashvili reopened the place as a working church owing to the cathedral’s importance as a symbol of national unification because of the association with Bagrati III. 

Once the restoration began, UNESCO placed the cathedral on its World Heritage Sites in Danger list. After the green roof and a tower on the north side were added, UNESCO removed the cathedral from the World Heritage List. The site is impressive and if I hadn’t known the history of the building, I would have assumed the interior was the original. The roof is obviously modern, but that didn’t detract too much from the atmosphere.        

  The Gelati monastery is in the hills about 10 kilometres to the north of Kutaisi. The main sight is the Cathedral of the Virgin built by King David the Builder in the period 1106-1125. Its interior is colourful with blue used as the predominant background colour and the plentiful light makes the imagery easy to appreciate. Of particular interest to me were the images over the west door with Pontius Pilate washing his hands and Judas Iscariot hanging himself, two images I’ve never seen in a church before. 

Kutaisi

Kutaisi is the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Colchis. For many years, when the Arabs occupied Tbilisi, Kutaisi was the capital of Georgia. Its golden age was the period between the reigns of King Bagrat and Queen Tamar (roughly 900 AD – 1200 AD) and many of its significant buildings date from this time. Now, it’s the major city of the Imereti region and the people here are renowned for their sense of humour. Kutaisi is also home to a special ‘khachapuri’ – the delicious cheese bread that’s unique to Georgia.

Kutaisi has a Colchis fountain in Davit Agmashenebeli Square based on gold jewellery found at the Vani archaeological site. This fountain opened in 2011 and replaced a statue of King David the Builder, which was moved to the Kutaisi railway station. 

The Kutaisi State Historical Museum exhibits qvevri burial pitchers used in Colchis for burying females, whereas men were wrapped in leather and hung from trees. A fertility figure from Baghdati (just south of Kutaisi) with both breasts and phallus dates from between the 8th and 6th Century BC and is the museum’s most famous exhibit although the museum’s collection of early icons from the 10th Century must run the figure a close second. 

North of the bus station is the modern parliament building that was only used between 2012 and 2019, designed by the Spanish architect Alberto Domingo Cabo, who was channelling his inner Calatrava when he designed this building. It looks like a sausage roll with a little pastry and where the sausage is glass. A 1980s war memorial that Vladimir Putin suggested be moved to Moscow previously occupied the land, however President Saakashvili had the memorial blown to pieces in 2009, perhaps in retaliation for the Russian invasion of South Ossetia the previous year. Unfortunately, some of the concrete from the memorial killed two people in the courtyard of their house a considerable distance away.