Bolnisi (Katharinenfeld)

Bolnisi is a small town on the Mashavera river, about 60 km south-west of Tbilisi, and the natural base for Bolnisi Sioni, 6 km to the south. It began as Katharinenfeld, a colony founded in 1818 by settlers from Württemberg and named after Queen Catherine of Württemberg, sister of Tsar Alexander I. The old centre still shows those roots: a broad main street and side streets lined with solid stone houses in a plain German style, with wide gateways leading into deep yards where families once kept cellars, carts and livestock.

Katharinenfeld became one of the most prosperous colonies in the Caucasus, known for its wine and brandy. It was renamed Luxemburg in 1921, after Rosa Luxemburg, and took the name Bolnisi in 1944, three years after its German population was deported. A walk through the old streets takes about an hour and fits easily into a day with Bolnisi Sioni, Tsughrughasheni and Dmanisi.

German settlers founded Katharinenfeld in 1818, part of a wave of emigration from Württemberg to the South Caucasus. The colony grew into a busy town of vineyards, cellars and workshops, and its wine cooperative became well known in the early 20th century. In 1921 the new Soviet authorities renamed it Luxemburg. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the colonists were deported to Central Asia in 1941, and in 1944 the town became Bolnisi, after the ancient village and church to the south.