Ujarma Fortress

Ujarma is the first serious stop in Kakheti, less than an hour from Tbilisi. The fortress runs along a rocky ridge directly above the Iori, and from the road below it looks as though the hill has been given a crown of walls.

The site is old. Georgian chronicles mention Ujarma from the 3rd century, and in the 5th King Vakhtang Gorgasali turned it into a royal residence — one of the principal courts of the kingdom before Tbilisi was founded. Tradition holds that Vakhtang died here of a wound taken in battle. Later the fortress guarded the eastern approaches of the Kakhetian kingdom and was destroyed and rebuilt more than once.

What survives is easy to walk:

• The long curtain wall with towers, following the ridge on both flanks

• The citadel at the highest point, from which the valley reads clearly in both directions

• The Jvarpatiosani church, a small domed building of the 10th century, partly reconstructed

Restoration in recent decades is very visible in places: new courses of stone sit against old ones in a different colour, and purists find it heavy-handed. The practical result is that you can walk the walls without risk, which is rarely true of Georgian fortresses this size.

The landscape below is dry and open — grey slopes above the Iori, scattered trees, and the Tsiv-Gombori range in the distance. Spring brings a short flush of green and poppies among the stones; by July everything is bleached and the middle of the day is genuinely hot. Late afternoon light on the east-facing walls is the best of the day.

Ujarma is also a good first lesson in how Georgian fortresses were sited. Not on a summit, where water is impossible and supply worse, but on a spur with a river below and a road that has no choice but to pass underneath it.