The fortress city — Rabati Castle where a mosque and a church face each other across a single courtyard, and churchkhela nut candy from medieval recipes
Akhaltsikhe (meaning 'new fortress' in Georgian) is the largest city of the Samtskhe-Javakheti region — a highland city at 1,000 metres altitude in the Potskhovi river valley, surrounded by Armenian highlands and Ottoman-era architecture. The city is dominated by the spectacular Rabati Castle complex — a massive fortification built in the 9th century and expanded by the Ottomans in the 17th century, which uniquely houses both a functioning Orthodox church (St. Marina) and a restored mosque (Sultani Mosque) within the same castle walls. The surrounding region was one of the most contested bord…
Akhaltsikhe was the capital of the medieval Georgian principality of Samtskhe-Saatabago from the 12th century and one of the most strategically important fortresses in the southern Caucasus. The Ottomans captured the city in 1578 and held it for 245 years — long enough to transform the city's architecture and demographics significantly. Russia seized Akhaltsikhe from the Ottomans in 1828 (Treaty of Adrianople), expelling most of the Muslim population and resettling Armenians from Ottoman territory. The Rabati Castle complex was extensively restored between 2011 and 2012 in a Georgian governme…