Khashuri

Khashuri is a railway town on the plain of Shida Kartli, in the middle of Georgia, where the main line from Tbilisi to the Black Sea meets the branch to Borjomi. It grew up around a station opened in 1872 and is still a place people pass through more than stay, but the short trips around it are good: the fortress and pine woods of Surami next door, a 7th-century church at Tsromi, and the wooded gorge up to Borjomi.

This guide covers when to go, where to stay, what to see in town and nearby, what to eat, and the history and customs that make the place make sense.

1. 01

   Surami Fortress (nearby)

   Four kilometers northwest of Khashuri, the fortress of Surami stands on a rock above the town, guarding the road between eastern and western Georgia. Its oldest parts may date to the 12th century, and it was rebuilt in the 16th and 17th. By legend, its walls kept falling down until a young man named Zurab agreed to be walled up inside them; Daniel Chonkadze told the story in a novella of 1859, and Sergei Parajanov filmed it in 1985.

   Minibuses and taxis from Khashuri take about 10 minutes. Walk up to the walls for the view over the town.

   Photo: Archil sutiashvili, CC BY-SA 4.0
2. 02

   Surami (nearby)

   The small town around the fortress became a mountain resort in the 19th century, for the pine woods on the slopes of the Likhi Range above it. The Ukrainian poet Lesya Ukrainka was brought here for the air in July 1913 and died on 1 August; the house where she died is a museum, with her monument among the pines. The Mother of God church complex dates from the 16th and 17th centuries.

   Along the road, stalls sell nazuki, the town’s sweet bread, warm from clay ovens.

   Photo: Kober, Public domain
3. 03

   The church of Tsromi (nearby)

   In the village of Tsromi, about 12 km east of Khashuri on the right bank of the Mtkvari, stands one of the key buildings of early Georgian architecture, built between 626 and 634 under Stephen II of Iberia. It was the first Georgian church whose dome rests on four free-standing pillars, and the deep niches in its east front became a hallmark of later Georgian churches. Fragments of its 7th-century apse mosaic are in the Art Museum in Tbilisi.

   Damaged in an earthquake in 1940, the church has been braced. Walk around to the east front, with its two deep niches.

   Photo: Jaba1977, CC BY-SA 4.0
4. 04

   The old tower and the railway town

   Khashuri itself is a plain working town, but it keeps a round stone tower from the 18th century and the churches of St. John and St. Marine. The station opened in 1872 on the new railway from Poti to Tiflis, and the town grew up around it and the railway workshops, once among the largest works in the South Caucasus.

   A small museum of local history tells the town’s story; check its hours locally.

   Photo: 360gradusi, CC BY-SA 3.0
5. 05

   Borjomi (nearby)

   About 30 km southwest up the wooded gorge of the Mtkvari, Borjomi is the spa town whose salty, naturally sparkling water is drunk across the former Soviet Union. Its Central Park, laid out from the 1840s, follows the river from the spring pavilion to open-air sulphur pools at the far end, and the Romanovs’ summer palace stands at Likani on the edge of town.

   Minibuses and local trains run from Khashuri. Allow a full day with the walk to the pools.

   Photo: Marcin Konsek, CC BY-SA 4.0

Three hidden gems

Pick the neighborhood first, then the hotel. Each link opens a map of places to stay around it.

Hotel links go to Stay22. If you book, we may earn a commission, at no cost to you.

Khashuri eats like the rest of Kartli, the farming heart of central Georgia: khinkali, grilled meat, beans in clay pots, cheese bread and fruit from the orchards of the plain. The local specialty is baked a few kilometers up the road in Surami.

Nazuki

A sweet bread spiced with cinnamon and cloves and studded with raisins. Once baked for Easter, it is now made all year in clay tone ovens by the stalls along the road through Surami, and sold warm.

Photo: AlexandreTheGreatt, CC0

Khinkali

Pleated dumplings of spiced meat and broth, eaten by hand: hold the knot, bite, sip the juice, and leave the knot on the plate.

Mtsvadi

Pork or veal grilled on skewers, traditionally over vine cuttings, with raw onion and tkemali, a sour plum sauce.

Lobio

Beans stewed in a clay pot with herbs and spices, eaten with mchadi, a dense cornbread.

Imeruli khachapuri

The round cheese bread of neighboring Imereti, on almost every table.

Churchkhela

Walnuts on a string dipped in thickened grape juice, sold in bunches by the road.

Eat in the family restaurants and khinkali houses around the center and along the main road, and buy nazuki warm from the stalls in Surami. In summer and autumn, roadside sellers and the market have fruit from the orchards of the plain.

1. 626 to 634

   The church of Tsromi is built under Stephen II of Iberia, with a dome on four free-standing pillars.

2. 12th century

   Surami becomes a fortified town guarding the road between eastern and western Georgia. From the 1170s its lords, the eristavs of Kartli, take the name Surameli.

3. 1693

   Khashuri first appears in a written document.

4. 1872

   The railway from Poti to Tiflis opens, and a station named Mikhailovo, after the viceroy Grand Duke Michael, is built here. The town grows up around it.

5. 1894

   A branch line to Borjomi opens, and the station becomes a junction.

6. 1913

   The Ukrainian poet Lesya Ukrainka dies in Surami on 1 August.

7. 1917 to 1934

   Mikhailovo is renamed Khashuri in 1917 and becomes a town in 1921. From 1928 to 1934 it is called Stalinisi.

8. 1932

   On 16 August, the first electric train in the Soviet Union runs over the Surami Pass, west of the town.