Ananuri

Ananuri is a village in Dusheti Municipality on the Georgian Military Highway, about 72 km north of Tbilisi on the shore of the Zhinvali Reservoir. Its landmark is the Ananuri fortress complex, seat of the Aragvi eristavis (dukes), where two castles are joined by a crenellated curtain wall. Inside stand the richly carved Church of the Mother of God, built in 1689, the older burial church of the dukes, and the Sheupovari tower, where the last Aragvi defenders fell in 1739. Ananuri has been on Georgia's UNESCO World Heritage tentative list since 2007. Sitting directly on a paved main road, it is accessible all year and is the usual first stop on the drive to Kazbegi.