Rabati Castle

Akhaltsikhe (Rabati) Castle (Georgian: ახალციხის (რაბათის) ციხე) is a medieval fortress built in the 9th century under the name "Lomsia Castle" in the city of Akhaltsikhe in southern Georgia, recently reconstructed. One of the main attractions of the Samtskhe-Javakheti region along with Vardzia.

The original name of the fortress in the 9th century was Lomsia, which can be translated from Georgian as "Lion". At the end of the 12th century, Lomsia acquired the new name Akhal-tsikhe, which literally translates as “New fortress”, the Arabic name "Rabati" means fortress. Rabati was usually called the trading quarter at the fortress, earlier mainly Jewish merchants and craftsmen lived in the Rabat quarter, however mainly after reconstruction the name stuck to the all fortress itself. On the official web site of municipality of Akhaltsikhe town and on the official Facebook page of the fortress the name is "Akhaltsikhe (Rabati) Castle" was used or just "Akhaltsikhe Castle." In most of all historical documents castle is mentioned as Akhaltsikhe castle

According to the Georgian Chronicles the city was established in the 9th century by Guaram Mampali, son of the King of Tao. At the end of the 12th century Lomsia turned into a real city with the new name Akhal-tsikhe (New Fortress), which in addition to the fortress had a serious system of city-wide fortifications – high walls, guarded entrance gates and watch towers. From the 13th to the end of 14th centuries it was the capital city of Samtskhe-Saatabago, ruled by the Georgian princely (mtavari) family and a ruling dynasty of the Principality of Samtskhe, the House of Jaqeli.

In 1393 the city was attacked by the armies of Tamerlane. Despite the Turko-Mongol invasions, the fortress withstood and continued to thrive. After the Treaty of Constantinople in 1590, the whole territory of Samtskhe-Saatabago came under the rule of Ottoman Empire.

Metropolitan John writes in the late 18th century that "despite the fact that a large part of the population has been Islamized, there's still a functioning Orthodox church." After the Treaty of Georgievsk between the Kingdom of Kartli and the Russian Empire was signed, the question of the fate of Akhaltsikhe arose. The first attempt to take the fortress in 1810 failed. However, Prince Paskevich successfully stormed the fortress 18 years later, in the great Battle of Akhaltsikhe.

Text adapted from “Akhaltsikhe Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Rabati Castle ranks #490 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #2 of the 39 mapped in Georgia. Founded 900, it is older than 94% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 61 atlas entries founded in the 9th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 8,926 times in the last 60 days, more than 91% of the atlas. 3 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Georgia compares in the castle statistics.

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