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Imereti, Georgia
LAA
Imereti, Georgia
LAA
Imereti, Georgia
LAA
Imereti, Georgia
LAA
Imereti, Georgia
LAA
Tskaltubo
REGION
Imereti, Georgia
ALTITUDE
~110 m
TOP SIGHTS
Abandoned Soviet sanatoriums · Radon-carbonate mineral springs · Central bathhouse and colonnade · Tskaltubo Park · Prometheus Cave nearby
BEST TIME TO VISIT
Year-round; the springs hold a steady 33–35°C
HOW TO GET
10 km / 20 min from Kutaisi
TIME NEEDED
Half a day
Tskaltubo was built to be the finest spa town in the Soviet Union. Its radon-carbonate springs emerge at a constant 33 to 35 degrees, and from the 1940s onward a ring of enormous sanatoriums went up around a central park, each one assigned to a different ministry or republic.
After 1991 the system collapsed. Most of the buildings were left to the weather or occupied by families displaced from Abkhazia, and their colonnades, staircases and mosaic halls have become one of the most photographed examples of Soviet ruin architecture anywhere.
Some of the bathhouses still function, and several sanatoriums are being restored as hotels. The town also makes an easy base for Prometheus Cave and the canyons of western Georgia, twenty minutes away.
