Modinakhe Fortress

Modinakhe stands on a steep ridge above Sachkhere and is visible from almost every street in the town. The date of building is not known, but for a long period it was the principal residence of the Tsereteli princes, one of the strongest families of Upper Imereti.

The name needs explaining. Modi-nakhe means exactly what it sounds like: come and look. It is a taunt aimed at a besieger — come and see whether you can take it. The position bears the boast out. On three sides the slope falls away steeply, and the fortress had its own water supply inside the walls.

Its history ended in 1810, when the Russian army took the castle during the conquest of the Caucasus. After that it was abandoned. The earthquake of 1991 delivered the final blow: much of the walling collapsed and blocks of masonry slid down the hillside, where they still lie as they fell.

What you find on top: stretches of curtain wall, the base of a tower, the remains of a cistern and stone scattered in the grass. The reason to climb is the view — the Kvirila valley, Sachkhere directly below, the Racha range to the north, and on clear days the Likhi ridge away to the east.

Treat it as an hour's stop rather than a destination in itself. It pairs naturally with Skhvitori and the Akaki Tsereteli house-museum half an hour away: two ends of the same family story.

The Tseretelis deserve a paragraph of their own. They held Upper Imereti as a half-independent principality, quarrelled with the kings of Imereti about as often as they served them, and in the 19th century produced the poet Akaki Tsereteli, born a few kilometres from here at Skhvitori. When the Russian empire absorbed the region the family kept its titles but lost the fortress, and the two things happened within a single generation.