Fortress · Gori, Gori Municipality, Shida Kartli
Gori Fortress
გორის ციხე · Goris Tsikhe
An oval citadel on a rocky hill in the middle of Gori, ringed by walls up to ten metres high and anchored on its western side by the Tskhrakara, the 'nine-door' structure.
Where it is
41.9856, 44.1078
Why go
People lived on this hill in the first millennium BCE, and the citadel that stands now is the product of centuries of struggle for Shida Kartli between Georgian, Mongol, Persian and Ottoman forces. King Erekle II had it rebuilt, a Russian battalion was stationed here in the nineteenth century, and the earthquake of 1920 did serious damage. Inside the walls of cobblestone and cut stone, patched with brick, are a tunnel that brought water from a reservoir and the ruins of a small church. The hill sits in the centre of town, so it combines naturally with the Stalin Museum.
Base yourself nearby
city
Tbilisi
Georgia’s capital is a layered city of old balconies, sulfur baths, hillside neighborhoods, contemporary restaurants and centuries of history along the Mtkvari River.
Historic town
Mtskheta
Mtskheta was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Iberia and is the place where Georgia adopted Christianity in the fourth century. Today it is a small, walkable town twenty kilometres from Tbilisi holding Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, the hilltop church of Jvari, the working convent of Samtavro and the archaeological remains of the pre-Christian royal city, inscribed together on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It is simultaneously Georgia's most important pilgrimage destination and its most accessible serious historical site.
Near Gori Fortress
Museum
Joseph Stalin Museum
A museum complex in central Gori built around the small house where Joseph Stalin was born, with a main exhibition building opened in 1957 and his personal railway carriage displayed alongside.
1 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Archaeological site
Uplistsikhe Cave Town
A cave town hewn into a rocky massif on the left bank of the Mtkvari east of Gori, where halls, streets and a basilica were cut straight into the living rock.
9 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Church
Ateni Sioni Church
A 7th-century church of green-grey sandstone on a cliff above terraced vineyards in the Ateni valley near Gori, built to a design that resembles Mtskheta's Jvari.
9 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Monastery
Rkoni Monastery
A monastery complex of churches, towers and monks' dwellings in the upper Tedzami gorge south of Kaspi, reached over a medieval stone bridge and watched over by Rkoni Fortress on a rocky hill.
22 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ