Adjara

Gonio Fortress

Gonio Fortress is located in 12 km to the south of Batumi. Gonio Fortress had a unique strategic meaning: It protected the entrance of river's gorges of Chorokhi and Acharistskali which tied together inside districts of southwest Georgia and coast of the Black Sea. Thanks to this arrangement, Fortress turned to a backbone citadel of the Roman Empire. In this region engendered bronze culture of Colchis, here originated first Georgian state unification. This place is closely connected with the myth of the Argonauts.The fortress of Gonio was a strategic, political, economic and cultural center of the eastern border of Rome. In I-III century BC was already in operation a theater and a hippodrome. In the Gonio Fortress constantly are being conducted archaeological excavations, and since 1994 it has been announced as reserve museum.