Bolnisi Town

Bolnisi holds two separate histories, and most visitors know only one. Five kilometres away stands Bolnisi Sioni, the 5th-century basilica that is the oldest church in Georgia. The town itself dates only from 1818.

It was founded as the Swabian German colony of Katharinenfeld, settled by families from Württemberg. In 1921 it was renamed Luxemburg, after Rosa Luxemburg, and in 1943 Bolnisi. In 1826, during the Russo-Persian war, the colony was raided and a large part of its people were killed or carried off; the survivors rebuilt on the same plan. The German population was deported in 1941.

What survives is the town plan. The main street is unusually wide and straight, lined on both sides with two-storey stone houses under tiled roofs, many with the date of building carved above the door. The stone is local: a greenish-grey tuff known as Bolnisi stone, the same material used for Bolnisi Sioni and for a great many buildings in Tbilisi. The former Lutheran church stands in the middle of the street.

A third layer is industrial. Bolnisi is the centre of Georgia's copper and gold mining district; the Madneuli deposit lies nearby at Kazreti. That gives the town jobs and also gives it environmental problems that are openly discussed locally. Vineyards surround the town, and the Bolnisi wine district has gained a reputation over the past decade.