Bagrat's Castle ( ka, ბაგრატის ციხე, tr) is a ruined medieval castle near

Sokhumi Sukhumi or Sokhumi is a city in a wide bay on the Black Sea's eastern coast. It is both the Capital city, capital and largest city of Abkhazia, a partially recognised state that most countries consider a part of Georgia (country), Georgia. The ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

’s breakaway republic of

Abkhazia Abkhazia, officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a List of states with limited recognition, partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia. It cover ...

, close to the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

coast. It is named after the Georgian king Bagrat, either Bagrat III or Bagrat IV, and traditionally dated to the late 10th or 11th century. The castle stands in ruins on a hill on the left bank of the Basla (Besleti) river, in the south-eastern portion of Sokhumi, measuring 55 x 27 m in total area. The surviving structures are walls, rising to 10-12 m in height, of an oval-shaped edifice with a rectangular tower guarding the entrance gateway, which shows traces of tunnels. Archaeological digs, supervised by Mikhail Trapsh in the 1950s, revealed remains of fortified structures, wine jars, jugs, glazed pottery, and other items dating from the 12th to the 14th century. The naming and dating of the castle is based on a local legend recorded in the 19th century, but architectural evidence suggests the structure can be of a later date, serving as the seat of the

eristavi ''Eristavi'' (; literally, "head of the nation") was a Georgia (country), Georgian feudal office, roughly equivalent to the Byzantine Empire, Byzantine ''strategos'' and normally translated into English language, English as "prince" or less comm ...

of Tskhumi, as Sokhumi was known in the Middle Ages. The historian Yuri Voronov also conjectured that castle might have hosted the queen-regnant

Tamar of Georgia Tamar the Great ( ka, თამარ მეფე, tr , ; 1160 – 18 January 1213) queen regnant, reigned as the List of monarchs of Georgia#Kings of unified Georgia (1008–1490), Queen of Kingdom of Georgia, Georgia from 1184 to 1213, ...

during her stays in Abkhazia in the early 13th century. It also functioned as a shelter for the local elite, including the Shervashidze family, in case of danger. In the 16th century, when the town's chief settlement moved to the west, on the right bank of the river, the castle was abandoned and left to fall in ruins. Georgia has inscribed the castle on its registry of Cultural Monuments of National Significance and reported, in 2015, its condition as in urgent need of conservation.

References

{{reflist Ruins in Georgia (country) Fortifications in Abkhazia Immovable Cultural Monuments of National Significance of Georgia House of Shervashidze