Kutaisi

Kutaisi stands on the Rioni in the fertile lands of western Georgia. A royal capital from the age of the Abkhazian kings, it became a centre of the united Georgian kingdom and later the seat of the kings of Imereti. Above the city rises Bagrati Cathedral, built under Bagrat III, while the nearby monastery of Gelati served as a major centre of learning and the burial place of Georgian rulers.

After the Georgian monarchy fragmented in the fifteenth century, Kutaisi became the capital of Imereti. Its kings faced powerful nobles and growing Ottoman pressure. An Ottoman garrison occupied the fortress from the 1660s, even as the Georgian royal court continued to struggle for authority. Solomon I fought both the slave trade and Ottoman interference; with Russian assistance he recovered Kutaisi in 1770. Solomon II accepted Russian suzerainty in 1804 in an effort to preserve his throne, but disputes over the kingdom's autonomy continued. In 1810 Russia abolished the kingdom and the king fled into exile. Kutaisi remained the principal town of Imereti, its cathedral and royal monuments recalling centuries during which western Georgian kings had ruled from the Rioni.