Akhiza Castle

Akhiza Castle (Georgian: ახიზის ციხე; transliterated: "ah'izis tsih'e") is a castle built in the Middle Ages in the historical region of Klarjeti, which today lies within the borders of Turkey, in the Ardanuç district of Artvin Province. In Evliya Çelebi's travel account it appears as Harbe Castle. Today this castle is also called Ferhatlı Castle, after the name of the village of Ferhatlı.

Akhiza Castle, which lies in the old village of Akhiza, is situated about two kilometres north of the village of Ferhatlı, on the right bank of the Cehennem Stream. The castle was renovated in the 5th century by the Georgian king Vakhtang Gorgasali.

According to the Georgian history known as Kartlis Tskhovreba, the Georgian king Vakhtang Gorgasali and the prince of Klarjeti, Artavaz, toured the region after the recovery of Klarjeti. According to what Juansher, one of the authors of this history, wrote, there were two great castles in Klarjeti at that time. These were Tukharisi Castle and Akhiza Castle. Since Akhiza Castle had been damaged, the king ordered that the castle be rebuilt. Thereupon the castle was renovated and a church too was built within the castle in the name of Vakhtang Gorgasal.

Karl Koch, who travelled through the region, referred to Akhiza Castle as Gocibore. At that time the episcopal seat beside the castle no longer existed. The Russian cleric Pavel Aleksandrovich Florensky, who toured the region around 1910, wrote that although the castle had largely collapsed, its walls were still sound. In the church within the castle the mosaic fresco of the Virgin Mary was also intact. It is known that in the ceiling decoration of the Akhiza Church there was a cross in one place and a cross with a deer figure in another.

Today, although part of the curtain walls of Akhiza Castle is still standing, the castle, which was built using rubble stone, is in a ruined state.

Machine-translated from “Ahiza Kalesi” on the Turkish Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Akhiza Castle ranks #7,702 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #123 of the 129 mapped in Turkey. 3 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Batumi, 64 km away. See how Turkey compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia (in Turkish) ↗