Rabati Castle, Akhaltsikhe

About this place

A medieval fortress in the city of Akhaltsikhe in southern Georgia, built in the ninth century as «Lomsia», the lion. By the late twelfth century it was called Akhaltsikhe, «the new fortress», and it is also known as Rabati, after the trading quarter that grew up at its walls. Together with Vardzia it is the region's best-known sight. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it was the capital of the principality of Samtskhe, ruled by the Jaqeli family, and it withstood Timur's invasions. It came under the Ottomans from the late sixteenth century, and in 1752 the ruler Haji Ahmed Pasha Jaqeli built a mosque inside modelled on Hagia Sophia; the Russians took the fortress in 1828, and the mosque served as a church for decades. The castle was extensively rebuilt and restored in 2011 and 2012 into a complex of walls, towers, a palace, the golden-domed mosque with its minaret, a church, gardens and fountains, and a history museum of the Samtskhe-Javakheti region. The top of the tower looks out over the city and mountains. Tickets are 20 GEL for foreign visitors and 10 GEL for citizens and residents, per the castle's official website, covering the upper castle; the lower courtyard is free to enter. Guided tours and an audio guide cost extra, and it lies on the road from Borjomi to Vardzia.