What to See in Georgia - Top Sights and Attractions

11th-century Eastern Orthodox cathedral. The Svetitskhoveli Cathedral is an Orthodox Christian cathedral located in the historic town of Mtskheta, Georgia, to the northwest of the Georgian capital Tbilisi. A masterpiece of the Early and High Middle Ages, Svetitskhoveli is recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. It is currently the second largest church building in Georgia, after the Holy Trinity Cathedral.

Known as the burial site of the claimed Christ's mantle, Svetitskhoveli has long been one of the principal Georgian Orthodox churches and is among the most venerated places of worship in the region. Throughout the centuries, the cathedral served as the burial place for kings. The present cross-in-square structure was completed between 1010 and 1029 by the medieval Georgian architect Konstantine Arsukisdze, although the site itself dates back to the early fourth century. The exterior archature of the cathedral is a well-preserved example of typical decorations of the 11th century.

Svetitskhoveli is considered an endangered cultural landmark; it has survived a variety of adversities, and many of its priceless frescoes have been lost due to being whitewashed by the Russian Imperial authorities.^[2]

Roman ruins of an ancient fortress. Gonio fortress, is a Roman fortification in Adjara, Georgia, on the Black Sea, 15 km south of Batumi, at the mouth of the Chorokhi river. The village sits 4 km north of the Turkish border. Its name was connected with the myth of Medea and her brother Absyrtus.

The oldest reference to the fortress is by Pliny the Elder in the Natural History (1st century AD). There is also a reference to the ancient name of the site in Appian’s Mithridatic Wars (2nd century AD). In the 2nd century AD it was a well-fortified Roman city within Colchis. The town was also known for its theatre and hippodrome. Procopius, writing in the 6th century, speaks of the remains of its public buildings as proving that it was once a place of some importance.

It later came under Byzantine influence. The name "Gonio" is first attested in Michael Panaretos in the 14th century. In addition, there was a short-lived Genoese trade factory at the site. In 1547 Gonio was taken by the Ottomans, who held it until 1878, when, via the San-Stefano Treaty, Adjara became part of the Russian empire. In the fall of 1647, according to Evliya Çelebi, Gonio was captured by a Cossack navy of 70 chaikas, but quickly recovered by Ghazi Sidi Ahmed, ruler of the Tortum sanjak, with a force of 1,000 Turks and 3,000 "Mingrelians".

The grave of Saint Matthias, one of the twelve apostles, is believed to be inside the Gonio fortress. However, this is unverifiable as the Georgian government currently prohibits digging near the supposed gravesite. Other archaeological excavations are however taking place on the grounds of the fortress, focusing on Roman layers.

Gonio is currently experiencing a tourism boom. Most tourists come from Tbilisi in the summer months to enjoy beaches that are generally regarded as cleaner than Batumi's beaches (located 15 km to the north).^[11]

Botanical garden with tropical plants. The Sukhumi Botanical Garden is one of the oldest botanical gardens in the Caucasus. It was founded in 1840 as Sukhum-Kale Military-Botanical Garden by the head of the Russian Black Sea fortification line Nikolay Raevsky with the purpose of the introduction of new plants in the region. It was ravaged by Turkish forces in 1853–55 and 1877–78 in the course of the Russo-Turkish wars. The garden was transferred to civil authorities in 1889 and the restoration of the plantings was begun in 1894.

It continued to develop during the Soviet rule and it was finally transformed into the research institute of botany of the Academy of Sciences. More than 4,500 species were collected in the garden, including 1,200 tropical ones.

The garden suffered greatly during the Georgian-Abkhazian War between (1992–1993).^[13]

The Sukhumi Cathedral of the Annunciation is an Eastern Orthodox church in the city of Sukhumi, the capital of Abkhazia, an entity in the South Caucasus with a disputed political status.

The cathedral was built in a Neo-Byzantine fashion by Sukhumi's then-vibrant Greek community between 1909 and 1915. It was then consecrated in the name of St. Nicholas and was, therefore, popularly referred to as Greek Nicholas Church. In the 1940s, after the expulsion of most of local Greeks by the Soviet government under Joseph Stalin, the church passed to the Georgian Orthodox Church as a replacement for its former diocesan cathedral church demolished by the Soviet authorities about a decade earlier. It was reconsecrated in the name of Annunciation and remained one of the few functioning churches on the territory of autonomous Abkhazia throughout the Soviet period. In the 1980s, the church was significantly refurbished and its premises expanded under the Georgian Orthodox metropolitan bishop David Chkadua.

As a result of the War in Abkhazia (1992–1993) and expulsion of ethnic Georgian clergy from Abkhazia, the church was left to the guidance of ethnically Abkhaz priest of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Vissarion Apliaa, who made some renovation on the church building with the help of the Russian church authorities in 2011. Apliaa declared severance of ties with the Georgian church and began to style himself as the leader of independent Abkhazian Orthodox Church, although the former remains canonically unrecognized within the Orthodox world and the Abkhaz Orthodox clerical community itself straddles division. In 2011, the de facto Abkhaz government transferred 38 churches, cathedrals and monasteries perpetually into the care of the Abkhazian Orthodox Church. From the point of the Georgian government, the church is part of cultural heritage located in the Occupied Territories of Georgia.^[14]

Fortress in Gori, Georgia. Gori Fortress is a medieval citadel in Georgia, situated above the city of Gori on a rocky hill.

Standing on the hilltop, the fortress’s outlines follow the natural relief, hence the irregular shape. The inner fortifications occupy the entire plateau, from which the walls descend towards the road along the western slope. Originally, the walls reached the river below and the water had to be diverted through a tunnel, but the river has retreated since.

The fortress first appears in records from the 13th century, but archaeological evidence shows that the area had already been fortified in the final centuries BCE. The fortress was of major strategic importance, given its dominant position guarding a regional trade route, and accommodated a large garrison. In the 16th century the Ottomans captured it to overawe Tbilisi. In 1598 the Georgians, lead by their king Simon I, besieged it for nine months to no avail; in 1599 they feigned relieving the siege for Lent and then launched a surprise night attack to regain control over the citadel. The fortress continued to change hands between the Georgians and the Persians in the 17th century.

The citadel acquired its present-day form under the Georgian kings Rostom of Kartli in the 1630s and Erekle II in 1774. Following its completion, King Rostom asked the Italian missionary Cristophoro Castelli, who lived in Gori, to draw the fortress. His stunning illustration from approximately 1642 is a valuable historical document. After the Russian annexation of Georgia in 1801, the fortress was garrisoned by a Russian grenadier battalion, but its importance gradually declined and the fortifications went defunct. The city plan of 1824 shows the citadel, the city on the hill slopes and a moat encircling both. The British Encyclopædia Metropolitana reported in 1845:

At the foot of a chain of low sandstone hills stands the Town and Fortress of Gori, (perhaps the Gursenna of Strabo) the next place in magnitude and importance to Tiflis. The Castle, an oblong, 200 paces in length, placed sixteen fathoms above the level of the Liakhvi, running at the foot of the hill on which it stands, is now abandoned, a Chapel in its South-Eastern angle being the only part in use.

Gori Fortress was significantly damaged by an earthquake in 1920. The best preserved structure is Tskhra-kara ("the Nine-gated"), facing to the west and adjoined by supplementary walls on the south and east.^[18]