Inside the Akhaltsikhe Fortress

 

Akhaltsikhe Castle view from the Didimamishvili street

According to the Georgian Chronicles the city was established in the 9th century by Guaram Mampali, son of the King of Tao. At the end of the 12th century Lomsia turned into a real city with the new name Akhal-tsikhe (New Fortress), which in addition to the fortress had a serious system of city-wide fortifications – high walls, guarded entrance gates and watch towers. From the 13th to the end of 14th centuries it was the capital city of Samtskhe-Saatabago, ruled by the Georgian princely (mtavari) family and a ruling dynasty of the Principality of Samtskhe, the House of Jaqeli.[1]

In 1393 the city was attacked by the armies of Tamerlane. Despite the Turko-Mongol invasions, the fortress withstood and continued to thrive. After the Treaty of Constantinople in 1590, the whole territory of Samtskhe-Saatabago came under the rule of Ottoman Empire.

Metropolitan John writes in the late 18th century that "despite the fact that a large part of the population has been Islamized, there's still a functioning Orthodox church." After the Treaty of Georgievsk between the Kingdom of Kartli and the Russian Empire was signed, the question of the fate of Akhaltsikhe arose. The first attempt to take the fortress in 1810 failed. However, Prince Paskevich successfully stormed the fortress 18 years later, in the great Battle of Akhaltsikhe. After the Treaty of Adrianople in 1829, the Ottomans yielded this part of Akhaltsikhe Region.

The fortress and its adjacent buildings were extensively rebuilt and renovated in 2011–2012 in order to attract more tourists to the area.