Ananuri Fortress

The Ananuri fortress rises above the Zhinvali reservoir on the Georgian Military Road, about seventy kilometres north of Tbilisi.

The eristavis of Aragvi

The castle of the eristavis of Aragvi, the rulers of the gorge, stood here; the complex took its present form in the sixteenth century and was added to for two more. Inside the walls stands a tower with a pyramidal top where the last defence was made in 1739: the fortress was stormed by Shanshe, eristavi of Ksani, and Eristavi Bardzim died in the fire with his men.

Two churches

The main church is the Church of the Dormition of 1689, its southern facade carved with a large cross entwined in vine, with smoke-blackened fragments of painting surviving inside. The earlier Gvtaeba church of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries stands beside it, much smaller and almost without carving. A bell tower and the small Mkurnali church stand on the lower level of the fortifications.

Water below the walls

The walls, with round and rectangular towers, run down the slope to the water's edge. It was not always so: the valley was flooded during the building of the Zhinvali hydroelectric station in the 1980s, leaving the fortress on the shore of a reservoir, while the old Georgian Military Road and several villages went under.

Visiting

Ananuri stands right on the highway, the grounds are free to enter, and almost any trip along the Georgian Military Road includes a stop here. Georgia has long put the fortress forward for the World Heritage list.

Address

Ananuri, Georgian Military Road · 70 km from Tbilisi

Opening hours

Daily by day; the grounds are open

Prices

Free

On the map