# Gonio-Apsaros Fortress
- URL: https://explore-georgia.ge/en/places/gonio-fortress
- Type: place to visit
- Region: Adjara
- Coordinates: 41.573056, 41.573611

Gonio Fortress, anciently Apsaros, stands in Khelvachauri municipality on the left bank of the Chorokhi where it enters the Black Sea, 500 metres from the dried bank of the Chorokhi and 800 metres from the sea in a straight line; the village of Gonio lies 4 kilometres from the Turkish border. The fortress guarded the mouth of the Chorokhi, and its size follows from that strategic role: in plan it is a rectangle 228 metres long and 195 metres wide, with an area of 44,460 square metres. The wall has 18 towers set against it on the outside at almost equal intervals, the four largest at the corners, and a stone stair rises inside beside each tower. Other accounts give 22 towers originally, of which 18 survive.

At least four building layers can be read in the walls. The oldest, lower part is built of large, finely dressed blocks, often a metre thick; this masonry is five metres high, seven at the towers, and a metre and a half thick at the top. Above it come Byzantine (sixth–seventh century) and Genoese (thirteenth–fourteenth century) layers, while the upper courses of river stone belong to the mid-sixteenth century, when the Ottomans built onto the fortress. F. Uspensky and L. Vilkensky wrote of four gates, but study on site has confirmed two entrances, from the south and the west, the western being the main one. Above the main gate was once an inscribed stone, which was carried off in 1878.

Inside, on the central square, are the remains of a large later mosque and surviving underground tunnels, and archaeologists are excavating the Roman layers, where ancient water pipes and the remains of a bath have come to light. By tradition the fortress holds the grave of the apostle Matthias; this cannot be checked, since digging near the supposed grave is forbidden.

## History

The old name Apsaros comes, by the account of Arrian, from Apsyrtus, the son of Aeëtes killed by Medea and Jason, whose grave the locals were still pointing out in Arrian's day. The oldest mention of the fortress belongs to Pliny the Elder in the Natural History (first century AD), and Appian also named the site in the second century. In the second century Apsaros was a well-fortified Roman city in Colchis, known for its theatre and hippodrome, and in the sixth century Procopius wrote of the ruins of its public buildings. The fortress then came under Byzantine influence; the name Gonio first appears in the fourteenth century in Michael Panaretos, and the name is also linked to the presence of the Genoese in the thirteenth–fourteenth century.

In 1547 the Ottomans took Gonio and built onto the fortress. According to Evliya Çelebi, in the autumn of 1647 it was seized by Cossacks who came in 70 boats, but it was soon recovered by the ruler of the sanjak of Tortum with 1,000 Turks and 3,000 "Mingrelians". The Ottomans held the fortress until 1878, when by the Treaty of San Stefano Adjara passed to the Russian Empire; in the same year the inscribed stone over the main gate was carried off. In 1915 Andrei Krasnov wrote that the carved doors of rare workmanship had been taken away by foreign archaeologists.

Since 1995 the Gonio-Apsaros archaeological expedition has been working at the fortress, the reports of the Georgian-German expedition have been published since the 2000s, and in 2012 the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of the University of Warsaw funded photogrammetric, topographical and geophysical surveys of the site. The excavations concentrate on the Roman layers, while digging is forbidden near the supposed grave of the apostle Matthias.

## Visit info

Gonio lies 12–15 kilometres south of Batumi at the mouth of the Chorokhi, 4 kilometres from the Turkish border. The fortress is in the village of Gonio. The monument is a museum-reserve open to visitors; check the opening hours and ticket price before visiting.

## Tips

The boundary between the large dressed blocks of the lower courses and the Ottoman river-stone masonry above can be seen on the wall with the naked eye, and the history of the fortress reads in exactly these layers. Look for the ancient water pipes and the remains of the bath, and for the four large corner towers. The fortress is in the seaside village of Gonio, so in summer a visit combines easily with the beach.

## Safety

Do not enter the excavation areas or go near open trenches, and watch children. Climbing on the walls is dangerous. In summer carry water and a hat.

## Sources

- [Gonio Fortress — Georgian Wikipedia](https://ka.wikipedia.org/wiki/გონიოს_ციხე)
- [Gonio (fortress) — English Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonio_%28fortress%29)
- [Gonio-Apsaros Fortress — georgia.travel](https://georgia.travel/gonio-apsaros-fortress)
- [Gonio Fortress — Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q944813)

## This page in other languages

- [ქართული](https://explore-georgia.ge/ka/adgilebi/gonio-afsarosis-tsikhe)
- [Русский](https://explore-georgia.ge/ru/mesta/krepost-gonio-apsaros)