Fortress · Sachkhere, Sachkhere Municipality, Imereti
Modinakhe Fortress
მოდინახე
The ruins of a Tsereteli family stronghold on a limestone ridge about 700 metres above sea level over the town of Sachkhere, badly damaged by the 1991 earthquake.
Where it is
42.3489, 43.4022
Why go
Today it is a ruin, but the record of what stood here is clear: two long walls, one ending in a tall tower and the other in a pair of towers, enclosing a house, a chapel, a dungeon and a yard with buried qvevri. Excavations on the ridge also turned up Bronze Age material and traces of antique settlement. The name translates roughly as 'come and see', and local tradition says Papuna Tsereteli built the fortress so that he could invite a doubting future father-in-law to do exactly that. Russian forces took it after the 1810 uprising and garrisoned it, and it lost its military role afterwards. Come for the ruin and its position over Sachkhere.
Near Modinakhe Fortress
Synagogue
Oni Synagogue
A square, domed synagogue faced in white limestone, built in 1895 in the centre of the Racha town of Oni, with a Hebrew inscription beneath Stars of David at its entrance and the Ten Commandments carved in Hebrew on the eastern wall.
27 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Church
Nikortsminda Cathedral
Carved reliefs of the Transfiguration, the Last Judgement, saints and real and fantastic beasts cover the façades of this St Nicholas cathedral in the Racha village of Nikortsminda, built for King Bagrat III in 1010–1014.
29 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Monastery
Ubisi Monastery
A ninth-century monastery at Ubisi in Kharagauli municipality, pairing a hall church painted in the fourteenth century with a four-storey tower dated 1141.
31 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Craft market
Shrosha Pottery Market
The roadside market of Shrosha's potters, now trading from purpose-built areas on both sides of the new East–West motorway near the village, selling hand-thrown clay pots, jugs and qvevri.
32 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ