Atskuri Fortress

Atskuri stands where the Mtkvari gorge narrows so tightly that nothing can pass unseen. Historically this was the gateway from Kartli into Samtskhe, and whoever held the rock held the road. The fortress rises on a steep spur above the river and is impressive even from the car.

A stronghold is mentioned here in the early Middle Ages, but the walls and towers standing today are largely 14th to 16th century, remodelled first by the Jaqeli princes and later by an Ottoman garrison. The layout is complicated, following the shape of the rock: a lower enceinte, a middle terrace and an upper citadel.

Atskuri was more than a military post. It was the seat of the Bishop of Atskuri, one of the most important sees in southern Georgia. The ruins of the cathedral of the Dormition lie below the fortress, and the Atskuri icon of the Virgin, which tradition says was brought by the Apostle Andrew, is now kept in the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi.

The stronghold lost its purpose after 1828, when the Russian empire took Akhaltsikhe and the frontier moved south. From then on the villagers took stone from it for their own building, which is a large part of why the lower walls are so much more broken than the towers.

The site has been neither restored nor arranged for visitors: there are no made paths, no railings, no ticket and no information boards. Parts of the wall have collapsed, the stone is loose and in places the ground is genuinely dangerous. In exchange, the view from the top along the gorge and across the Meskheti range is exceptional, and you will almost certainly have it to yourself, because the traffic heading for Akhaltsikhe stays on the asphalt below and hardly anyone climbs up.