Shorapani Fortress

Shorapani Fortress crowns a steep rocky hill above the village of Shorapani, at the point where the Dzirula river flows into the Kvirila, about 5 km east of Zestaponi. For more than 2,000 years this spot controlled the narrow passage between the lowlands of western Georgia and the Kartli plain to the east, the same corridor used today by the railway and the old highway. What survives are sections of stone wall, the bases of towers and a few later structures scattered across the summit, partly hidden by trees and shrubs.

A short, steep scramble from the village brings you to the top, where you look down on the two river valleys and the bridges and rail lines threading through them. There are no facilities and almost no signs, so this is a stop for history lovers rather than casual sightseers. It fits easily into a drive between Tbilisi and Kutaisi on the old road, together with Ubisa Monastery in the Dzirula valley and the cave at Navenakhevi.

Classical writers knew the fortress as Sarapana. The geographer Strabo described it around the turn of the 1st century as a stronghold on the road from Colchis into Iberia, and in the 6th century Byzantine and Persian armies fought over it during the Lazic War, as recorded by Procopius. In the Middle Ages it remained one of the key fortresses of western Georgia, watching over the eastern edge of the Kingdom of Imereti.