Gremi Citadel

Gremi is a striking brick and stone citadel on a rocky hill above the Alazani Valley, between Telavi and Kvareli. It is the surviving core of a royal town that was the capital of the Kingdom of Kakheti in the 16th and early 17th centuries. At the top stands the Church of the Archangels, a domed cruciform church built in 1565 for King Levan of Kakheti, with frescoes completed by 1577. Its design mixes Georgian masonry with Iranian taste, and from the citadel there are wide views over the valley.

The museum in the bell tower displays archaeological finds and a 16th-century cannon, and its walls carry portraits of the kings of Kakheti painted by Levan Chogoshvili in 1985. Below the hill the old town once covered about 40 hectares, though little of it is visible today. The visit is short and the climb modest, so Gremi makes an easy stop on the Telavi–Kvareli road. There is a small entrance fee for the museum.

Gremi grew into a royal residence and trading town on the Silk Road. King Levan (reigned 1520–1574) built the Church of the Archangels in 1565, and the royal family lived in the citadel. In 1615 the armies of Shah Abbas I of Persia destroyed the town, and by the mid-17th century the kings had moved their capital to Telavi. The site has been on Georgia's UNESCO World Heritage tentative list since 2007.