Why go
Oni sits where the Rioni River bends through the Racha highlands, a town that once held Georgia's largest rural Jewish community. The 1895 synagogue—its blue-painted wooden interior miraculously preserved through Soviet decades—speaks to a population that reached 2,000 before emigration emptied these streets. The local museum, housed in a 19th-century merchant's home, holds ritual silver and mountain textiles that trace Racha's distinct craft traditions. Beyond town, the road climbs to Ghebi and other stone villages where medieval tower houses still shelter families who make cheese in summer pastures as their ancestors did. Oni rewards those who seek Georgia's layered past without the crowds of Svaneti.