Rkoni Fortress (Region of Shida Kartli)
Rkoni Fortress (Georgian: რკონის ციხე) – The fortress is built on a mountain with a very complex relief, its western part is on relatively flat ground, and the eastern part is on an almost steep slope. The inner territory is uneven. The fortress is built of unprocessed stone. The Rkoni fortress complex includes a fence, a church, an observation tower and a palace. The defensive wall is simple, irregularly round (5 m high) with one door facing northwest. The walls are reinforced with buttresses. From the inside, the wall is two-story. The fighting path along the wall was wooden. The lower part is blind, on the upper tier there are openings for firing a gun.
The observation tower stands at the top of the castle, on the top of the mountain. It is almost square in plan. Today, three floors remain. The third floor is damaged. In the courtyard of the castle there is a three-story palace, which has been preserved in ruins. The church of the Rkoni complex belongs to an earlier period than the other buildings and dates back to the 13th century. In the 12th-13th centuries, there was a significant trade and military-strategic route here, which connected Shida Kartli with Javakheti and Trialeti, and then, through Armenia, with the Middle East. The Rkoni fortress is included in the list of cultural monuments of national importance in Georgia.
Chachubeti village (Georgian: სოფელი ჩაჩუბეთი), Kaspi Municipality (Georgian: კასპის მუნიციპალიტეტი)
