Georgia – Ajaria (Batumi) November 18, 2019
Currency. Exchange fate November 2019. 1€ = 3.28 Georgian Lari (GEL)
Alphabet. The Georgian alphabet is ancient and only related to Armenian. All road signs are also in Latin script. There is little Cyrillic.
Diesel prices. Vary from 2.35 to 2.59 GEL/litre = €.71 – .79/l making it the cheapest diesel in Europe and Asia. And diesel is more expensive than gas!
I crossed from Turkey into Georgia early in the morning at Sarpi, Georgia on the Black Sea coast. Georgia immigration was a sorry mess. They checked the back of the vehicle 3 times, took 20 minutes to figure out that I owned the van, and forever to give me a stamp. It is visa-free on arrival.
I had to buy vehicle insurance for Georgia and that took forever too but only cost €15 for 15 days, the shortest term available. I guess it is just one of those inefficient countries.
Border Crossing Building, Sarpi. In the NM “Modern Architecture Buildings” series.
Usually, checkpoints at land borders around the world are among the least inspired buildings imaginable. With an architectural style that in most cases would be considered dull even for functional buildings, the lack of creativity at border checkpoints is quite surprising given the fact that a land border often gives visitors their first impression of a country. While architects around the globe are quick to turn air and sea borders into showcases of progressiveness, land borders have largely been excluded from this trend.
The border checkpoint at the village of Sarpi, which marks the boundaries between Georgia and Turkey, is a refreshing exception to this rule. Located directly on the shingle beach of the Black Sea, this iconic gleaming white and futuristic structure gives visitors a first glance at the progressive boom country that is bursting with energy and creativity.
The lofty building houses a cafeteria, staff rooms, and a conference room, while the undulating tower is used as a viewing platform. The interior of the building is light and airy, just like the exterior.
The building was completed in 2011 and was conceived by Berlin-based architect Jürgen Mayer-Hermann, who is also responsible for the much-acclaimed Metropol Parasol in Sevilla, Spain.
Kvariati Beach. This is a stone/pebble beach on the Black Sea just south of Batumi. It is several kilometres long.
Gonio Apsaros Fortress, Gonio. This is the remains of a Roman fortification first mentioned in 77 AD. It was the military, political, economic and cultural center of the Roman world in the Eastern frontier until the 3rd century AD. Built on the south bank of the Chorokhi River, the 5m crenellated walls are 224m by 195m enclosing 4.75ha. Eighteen of the original 22 – 7m high towers remain. The fort held 1200-1500 soldiers and had a theatre and hippodrome.
The area shows evidence of the 13th-8th century Colchian culture, Classical (5th-4th century) and Hellenistic (3rd – 1st century) habitation. It is the rumoured gravesite of Saint Matthias, the apostle who along with St Simon preached in the area and was martyred here. The Byzantines occupied the fort from 640 and the Ottomans from 1547-1878. A rich gold hoard was discovered in 1974.
The walls of the fortress are well restored. There are several excavations of Roman dwellings including a bath plus an archaeology museum (mostly Roman). A lovely arbour lined with palm trees and flowers runs the length of the fort. You can dress up as a Roman legionnaire and pose with ancient weaponry. It is 12 km south of Batumi.
BATUMI
Batumi is the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara and the third-largest city of Georgia, located on the coast of the Black Sea in the country’s southwest. It is situated in a Subtropical Zone at the foot of the Caucasus. Much of Batumi’s economy revolves around tourism and gambling (It is nicknamed “The Las Vegas of the Black Sea”), but the city is also an important sea port and includes industries like shipbuilding, food processing and light manufacturing. Since 2010, Batumi has been transformed by the construction of modern high-rise buildings, as well as the restoration of classical 19th-century edifices lining its historic Old Town
History. Batumi is located on the site of the ancient Greek colony in Colchis called “Bathus” or “Bathys” (lit. the ‘deep harbour’). Under Hadrian (c. 117–138 AD), it was converted into a fortified Roman port and later deserted for the fortress of Petra founded in the time of Justinian I (c. 527–565).
Ottoman rule. In the 15th century, the Ottoman Turks conquered the town. Batumi was recaptured by the Georgians several times. After the Turkish conquest, Islamisation of the hitherto Christian region began but this was terminated and to a great degree reversed, after the area was re-annexed to Russian Imperial Georgia after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78.
Imperial Russian rule. It was the last Black Sea port annexed by Russia in 1878. The expansion of Batumi began in 1883 with the construction of the Batumi–Tiflis–Baku railway (completed in 1900) and the finishing of the Baku–Batumi pipeline. Henceforth, Batumi became the chief Russian oil port in the Black Sea. By 1902 the population had reached 16,000, with 1,000 working in the refinery for Baron Rothschild’s Caspian and Black Sea oil company.
In the late 1880s and after, more than 7,400 Doukhobor emigrants sailed for Canada from Batumi, after the government agreed to let them emigrate. Quakers and Tolstoyans aided in collecting funds for the relocation of the religious minority, which had come into conflict with the Imperial government over its refusal to serve in the military and other positions. Canada settled them in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
War, communism, and late 20th-century independence. During 1901, Stalin lived in the city organizing strikes. In 1920. Kemal Atatürk ceded the area to the Bolsheviks of the Soviet Union on the condition that it be granted autonomy, for the sake of the Muslims among Batumi’s mixed population.
When Georgia gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1989, whilst other regions, such as Abkhazia, attempted to break away from the Georgian state, Adjara remained as an integral part of the Republic’s territory.
Present day. Batumi today is one of the main port cities of Georgia shipping oil through Georgia from Central Asia. Batumi has attracted international investors, and the prices of real estate in the city have trebled since 2001. In July 2007, the seat of the Constitutional Court of Georgia was moved from Tbilisi to Batumi to stimulate regional development. Several new hotels opened after 2009, first the Sheraton in 2010 and the Radisson Blu in 2011. The city features several casinos that attract tourists from Turkey, where gambling is illegal.
Batumi was host to the Russian 12th Military Base but they left in 2007.
Climate. Batumi has a humid subtropical climate heavily influenced by the onshore flow from the Black Sea with significant rainfall throughout most of the year, making Batumi the wettest city in both Georgia and the entire Caucasus Region.
The average annual temperature in Batumi is approximately 14 °C (57 °F). January is the coldest month with an average temperature of 7 °C. August is the hottest month, with an average temperature of 22 °C.
This large resort city on the Black Sea has lots of large hotels (many with casinos), apartment buildings (some modern and many Soviet leftovers and is a sea of construction. A lovely park with a promenade fronts the entire shore of the sea. It is a semi-tropical environment with palm trees growing on the boulevards.
The majority of the region’s inhabitants are Eastern Orthodox Christians and primarily adhere to the national Georgian Orthodox Church. There are also Sunni Muslim, Catholic, Armenian Apostolic, and Jewish communities.
House of Justice (Court Service Hall). In the “Modern Architecture Buildings” series, this is two, two-story, oval buildings in the shape of a figure 8 with a 15-story round building projecting from the centre.
Batumi Archaeological Museum. Starts from the Stone Age and progresses through all the eras mentioned in Gonio Fortress. Little of interest in the 2-story large hall but lovely gold from the 7th-3rd century BC Pitchenere and the 1st-2nd AD gold hoard discovered near Gonio in 1974. GAL3, !.5 reduced
Cathedral of the Mother of God. In a Russian Orthodox cathedral, there are many ornate wood-framed icons and a stone iconostasis but the highlight are the great stained glass windows.
Adjara Museum of Art. Showing more local art from Adjara, it was closed for renovation, but the gallery was open next door. GEL6, 3 reduced
Ali and Nino. Sitting right at the corner of the port and the open sea next to a large ferris wheel, this is a wonderful 8m tall sculpture of a man and woman composed of discs of stainless steel conforming to body parts. Called “Moving Love”, the two figures each rotate slowly and individually approaching each other and merging into a single entity without touching. It is about love from the novel by Kuran Sard between an aristocrat from Azerbaijan Ali and a Georgian princess Nino.
It dates from 2010 and is by two Georgian sculptors.
Alphabetic Tower. In the “Modern Architecture Buildings” series, this 140m tall structure has 8 steel tubes supporting a geodesic globe. A central column has an elevator and stairs. Wrapped around the main tubes is a spiralling band of mesh with several letters from the Georgian alphabet. The tower symbolizes the uniqueness of the Georgian alphabet and people. The structure combines the design of DNA, in its familiar double helix pattern. Two helix bands rise up the tower holding 33 letters of the Georgian alphabet, each 4 meters tall and made of aluminum.
I took the elevator up to the globe getting off at the first level. On the second level is a conference room and bar, on the third, is a revolving restaurant and on the top, a lovely bar. GEL10
Sea Slippers on Eggs. In the NM “Bizzarium” series, this odd art installation is the work of 39-year-old French sculptor and actress Lilll Fantozzi. Originally a miniature version of a pair of Keds on eggs, it is a symbol of the dangerous road for which Georgia has travelled in its reconstruction, but also represents a “dangerous life” like walking on such fragile things as eggs that may collapse any time. When The Georgian government decided to install it, the Keds shoes were changed to sea slippers, typical of a seaside city. The citizens disapproved of the installation in front of the Radisson Ritz Hotel.
That is what it says in Google. But it is about 6½kms from the lobby of the Radisson Hotel in a park and can’t be seen from the road. In fact I was 10m from it and couldn’t see it. I spent at least an hour looking for this and must have asked for directions at least 10 times. Few people in Butami have heard of it.
The sculpture consists of 12 large brown eggs with a pair of large green (with a thin red/white strip on the sole and a Georgian flag on one of the straps) flip/flops, thongs, jangles or whatever you call them – but I could not relate to “sea slippers”. Good luck.
Batumi Botanical Gardens. 9kms north of the center and sitting right on the coast, the most impressive part is the Green Cape developed in 1881 by the French traveller, D Alphonso, who brought exotic plants from all over the world. The most impressive are many huge magnolias, Brazilian pine and several Japanese camellias and cedars. There is only one rare Mediterranean tree, the Greek strawberry tree, a type of arbutus. The Green Cape joined with the Batumi BG in 1950 and they now have 133 types of tree. Free
I parked for the night in front of a huge monument of three giant white hands surrounding a bronze figure. Police arrived and said I couldn’t camp here. “Where can I stay?” “There is a hotel 100m from here.” Right. I haven’t stayed in a hotel for almost 2 years when I was driving the van. I ended up sleeping down a dark road.
