Radon waters
Warm healing baths.
Alexey Komarov — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Alexey Komarov — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Kober — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Yasuhiro Kojima — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Alexey Komarov — CC BY-SA 4.0
A spa town near Kutaisi that was one of the Soviet Union's most famous resorts, visited by thousands for treatment in its warm radon waters and regularly by Stalin, so grand classical sanatoriums were built around a large central park. Today the town offers two sights: working spa baths, where visitors sit in warm water at about thirty-three degrees, and abandoned Soviet sanatoriums with huge columns and halls overgrown by plants, now a draw for photographers and architecture lovers. Around them lie the central park with tall trees and little Tsivi Lake with walking paths, and Prometheus Cave and Sataplia are close by. Walking around town is free, and the spa baths charge per session. Some abandoned sanatoriums are dangerous with rotting floors, so do not enter closed ones; photograph from outside. Some buildings have been restored as modern hotels. Pair it with nearby Prometheus Cave in half a day from Kutaisi, a quarter of an hour by taxi.
Warm healing baths.
Abandoned classical grandeur.
Park walks.
Tskaltubo town, about 15 km north-west of Kutaisi
Some can be photographed from outside, but many are crumbling and dangerous, so do not enter closed buildings.