GeorgiaOfficial tourism
Surami Fortress

Where empires clashed for the soul of Georgia

Surami Fortress

Why go

Surami Fortress rises from a rocky ridge where the Likhi Range splits Georgia in two. For two millennia, whoever held this pass controlled the flow of armies, merchants, and faiths between eastern and western Georgia. The ruins you see today are mostly 16th–18th century, rebuilt after countless destructions—Mongol, Timurid, Ottoman, Persian. A local legend tells of a young man immured alive in its walls so the fortress would stand; his mother brought him wine in a goat-skin, the origin of 'tsisperi qveli'—the cheese still made here. The stones hold Georgia's fractured history: invasions resisted, alliances brokered, identities preserved against empires.

On the ground See

  • The fortress walls and towers, with their distinctive medieval Georgian masonry and later Ottoman modifications
  • The small church of St. George inside the fortress, rebuilt in the 19th century after earlier destruction
  • The Surami cheese makers working in the town below, continuing the tradition tied to the fortress legend

Practical Know before you go

Best visited April–October; the fortress is a 5-minute uphill walk from Surami town on the Tbilisi-Kutaisi highway, with no formal entrance fee.

Last reviewed 25 August 2026 · reviewed quarterly