As I wander the narrow lanes of Tbilisi’s old town, the capital of Georgia and home to a quarter of its almost four million population, I wonder to myself if there’s anywhere else in the world you could find a synagogue, a mosque and Armenian, Georgian and Catholic churches all crowded together?
Located at the junction of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, this country packs a lot into an area half the size of England. From the snow-capped mountains of the Caucasus in the north, through the semi-tropical forests of the interior, to the beaches on the shores of the Black Sea, there’s much to see here.
Tbilisi gets its name from its many hot springs, (tbili means warm), with the city spilling down the hillsides on either side of the Mtkvari River, the Nariqala fortress perched high above.
It has the largest Jewish population in the country, numbering around 11,000, as well as being home to the Great Synagogue, an impressive red brick structure dating from 1895, with two prayer halls and a kosher restaurant outside.
Nearby sits the smaller Ashkenazi Synagogue and a Jewish History Museum containing a variety of archaeological, ethnographic and historical exhibits.
Tblisi Mtskheta
Mtskheta (Photo: Rupert Parker)
In fact, Georgia has one of the oldest surviving diaspora Jewish communities, the first arriving after Nebuchadnezzar’s conquest of Jerusalem in 586BCE and exile in Babylon. Archaeological evidence shows they settled in Mtskheta, the ancient capital, around 12 miles outside Tbilisi.
And for much of Georgia’s history, the country’s Jewish community was met with tolerance rather than the discrimination common in other parts of Europe, even after the arrival of Christianity.
Tradition says that Elioz, a Georgian Jew, brought Jesus’s robe back here from Jerusalem, following the crucifixion. It’s still said to be buried in the 11th century Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, built in the same complex as the site of Georgia’s first wooden church, itself founded in 327CE by Georgian King Mirian after he converted to Christianity. Later rebuilt in stone in the 5th century, the church still stands to this day.
jvari-church-georgia-pixabay1788321
Jvari Church (Photo: Pixabay)
The area is one of the most important places of pilgrimage for Georgians, the vast majority of whom are members of the Georgian Orthodox church: on a hilltop nearby overlooking Mtskheta, is the Jvari Church, constructed in the late 5th Century on the site where King Mirian erected a wooden cross. Looking out to the valley where the Aragvi and Mtkvari Rivers converge, the views are spectacular.
Wherever you go in Georgia, there seem to be centuries of history to uncover. But before I venture west in the footsteps of legend, I detour 60 miles northwest of Tbilisi to Gori, the birthplace of Stalin.
Born Josef Dzhugashvili in 1879, his simple mud-brick house is now encased in a purpose-built glass-roofed Doric temple, with a vast museum dedicated to his life set behind.
Constructed in 1957, the displays here remain as they were in Soviet times. But to balance the propaganda, they’ve recently added a small two-room section downstairs, where mock-ups of an interrogation room and a prison cell have texts on the walls detailing his repression and torture.
Outside is Stalin’s own train carriage, used for his travel to the Yalta Conference in 1945. There’s no electric light inside, so you have to use a torch to get around and it’s chilling to see his bed and his bathtub up close, to stand where he once did.
Gori Stalin-s Carriage
Stalin's railway carriage, Gori (Photo: Rupert Parker)
I continue west to find another name from history in Kutaisi, the country’s third largest city. Continuously inhabited for over 4,000 years, it was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Colchis, dating back to around 2000BCE; here, according to Greek legend, Jason and his Argonauts found the Golden Fleece.
Historically, sheepskins were used to dredge tiny nuggets of gold from mountain streams so it’s possible this famous myth could actually be based on fact.
The Rioni River runs through the city’s centre, overlooked by the remains of a fortress and a cathedral. There’s been a Jewish community here since the Middle Ages, and the city’s Jewish quarter is home to three synagogues.
The two oldest, built in the 1860s, are now closed but the one still in use dates from 1885. It’s a magnificent building, faced in white stone with imposing columns at the entrance. Sadly there are now only around 50 Jewish families left in Kutaisi and the congregation numbers fewer than 150 members in total.
In nearby Vani, another important centre for the Colchis kingdom, a new museum displays the finds from a series of graves discovered here. Nobles were buried with their jewellery inside qvevri (traditional clay vessels), which helped to preserve the contents over the centuries, while the museum also has beautiful gold ornaments etched with fine animal designs on display.
Kutaisi Synagogue Interior
Kutaisi Synagoge (Photo: Rupert Parker)
In the hills just outside Kutaisi itself, the 4,000-year-old civilisation is put into its own perspective at the Sataplia Nature Reserve, which contains 200 fossilised dinosaur footprints — the prints are an astonishing 120 million years old, displayed under a protective canopy along with full-sized dinosaur replicas.
Tucked away elsewhere in the thick tropical forest of the reserve, one of the deep karst caves is open to visitors, with a small underground river running through the 300 metre long cavern. Above, panoramic viewpoints look out onto the Caucasus.
But my final stop takes me away from the mountains to the coast, where on the Black Sea, Batumi, Georgia’s second city is booming. A resort since the 19th century, when the Russian Tsar holidayed here, casinos and skyscrapers have sprung up over recent years creating a sort of Vegas on Black Sea, making the most of the semi-tropical climate.
The 19th century Boulevard on the seafront now stretches for nearly five miles past some of the newly-built towers, and an assortment of fountains and beach bars. Most of Batumi comes here for an early evening stroll and to watch the sun go down over the Black Sea; at one end, the Miracle Park is home to the Alphabetic Tower, a futuristic 130m double helix displaying all the letters of the Georgian alphabet in neon.
You can still see neo-classical mansions in the old town, built during the oil boom over a century ago, their wrought-iron balconies covered with trailing vines. It’s an attractive area, not unlike the French quarter of New Orleans, and fun to explore on foot.
There’s still a synagogue here too, built in the early 20th Century, its architecture inspired by Dutch synagogues and used by Ashkenazi Jews until 1923. Converted to a sports centre by the Soviets, it reopened in 1998, although there are now fewer than 50 families here too — most of the Jewish population have left for Israel. The twist in this particular tale is they’re coming back on holiday; Israelis make up one of the biggest tourist groups in Batumi.
Batumi Medea and Golden Fleece
Staute of Medea and the Golden Fleece (Photo: Rupert Parker)
To learn more about the way oil transformed this part of the world, the Nobel Brothers Batumi Technological Museum details the 19th century adventures of the Nobels and the Rothschilds.
Robert Nobel was searching for timber for rifle stocks when he stumbled across oil in Azerbaijan in 1876, before being instrumental in the construction of a rail link from Baku to Batumi, and enlarging the port. Later, the Rothschilds built a canning factory for kerosene so it could be safely shipped across the world.
But the new is never far away. The Piazza, a development in pastiche Venetian style, is filled with trendy bars and restaurants while at nearby Europe Square, the old post office has been turned into a luxury hotel, overseen by a statue of Medea standing atop a tall plinth, holding a glistening Golden Fleece in her hands.
The best views come after a 10-minute ride in the Doppelmayr cable car to the hilltop above the city, to gaze out over the city and out to the sea, and marvel at everything I’ve seen in this fascinating country.
Getting There
Flights from Heathrow to Tbilisi and Batumi, via Istanbul, cost from around £750 with Turkish Airlines.
For more information, visit georgia.travel
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