Georgia
Surami Fortress ranks #6,706 of 9,040 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #39 of the 47 mapped in Georgia. See how Georgia compares in the castle statistics.
Surami Fortress (Georgian სურამის ციხე) is a medieval Georgian fortress in the region of Shida Kartli, in the Khashuri Municipality; it dominates the northern part of the town of Surami and lies on the left bank of the river Suramula.
Decisive for the building of the fortress was its topographical position in the centre of Georgia at a canyon-like gorge and near the Surami Pass over the Likhi Mountains (Georgian ლიხის ქედი) and the Surami Mountains (Georgian სურამის ქედი).
To this day it is unclear when and by whom the oldest parts of Surami Fortress were built.
Archaeological finds show that the area around the fortress was already settled in the Bronze Age. The Georgian historian Platon Ioseliani describes in his works that the first structures were built as early as the 2nd century BC by the Iberian (Georgian) king Parnajom. Further evidence is found in Turkish and Persian sources:
According to the Ottoman writer Evliya Çelebi, the expansion of the fortress took place at the instruction of the Persian great king Khosrow I Anushirvan.
According to the Persian historian Iskander Munshi, the fortress was built by Abbas I.
Today Georgian scholars interpret from the building remains that the associated structures were erected in the 11th century.
As a testimony to the country's history, parts of the fortress wall have been restored and thus form a tourist attraction in the town. From the crown of the wall there is a panoramic view over the valley basin and the more recent buildings of the town, which include a Church of the Mother of God and the Kviratskhoveli Church.
Machine-translated from “Festung Surami” on the German Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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