Fortress · Kaspi Municipality, Shida Kartli
Skhvilo Fortress
სხვილოს ციხე · Skhvilo Castle
A cobblestone stronghold on a ridge near Kvemo Chala in Kaspi Municipality, overlooking the Lekhuri valley and Tiriponi field, with a five-storey tower whose only door is six metres off the ground.
Where it is
42.0386, 44.4171
Why go
First recorded in the tenth century as a seat of Kartli nobles, Skhvilo later became the first residence of the Amilakhvari princes, who eventually moved down to Kvemo Chala and built a new castle there. The main tower is what to study: windows and gun ports on every floor, murder holes and peepholes at the lowest level and a large balcony at the top for watching the courtyard. Churches of St George and St Nicholas stand inside the walls with living quarters and farm buildings. Badly damaged in 1632, it gave refuge during the Lezgian, Ottoman and Persian raids of the eighteenth century. Film fans may recognise it from a scene in The Eccentrics.
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 Skhvilo Fortress
Church
Samtavisi Cathedral
An almost square domed cathedral built in 1030 by the architect Hilarion Samtavneli in Shida Kartli, known for the carved cross and blind arcade on its east façade.
4 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Archaeological site
Grakliani Hill
An excavated hill beside the highway between Igoeti and Samtavisi in Kaspi Municipality, where layers of ancient settlement were uncovered along with an inscription in a still-undeciphered script.
5 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.
19 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Fortress
Ksani Fortress
A partly ruined fortress of the Mukhrani princes on Mount Sarkineti near Tsikhisdziri, commanding the meeting of the Ksani and Mtkvari rivers, with walls and towers largely from its 1746 rebuilding.
22 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ