Travel Guide Oudjarma

On the Tbilisi-Gombori-Telavi road, at the entrance to the mountainous part of the Iori valley, the ruins of the Udjarma fortress 40 km from Tbilisi are worth a look; located at the entrance to the Great Caucasus, this castle was once an important residence of the Georgian kings. The building is one of the most important monuments of the medieval period in Georgia, not only because of its strategic position, but also for its symbolism in Georgian religious history. It was here in the 4th century that St Salome of Udjarma, an Armenian princess who married the King of Iberia Rev II and who abandoned Zoroastrianism to convert to Christianity, resided. She was responsible for the conversion of her husband, son of Mirian I of Mtskheta and associated with the throne, a contemporary of Saint Nino who converted Mirian, and is considered alongside Nino as one of the leading figures in the evangelisation of the country, hence the abundance of the first name Salome in Georgia. It was King Vakhtang Gorgassali who had the castle built on the site that can still be seen today. It was destroyed by the Arabs in the 10th century and then rebuilt in the 12th century, before falling into ruin during the period of unrest (14th-15th centuries). Although not much remains of the walls and towers of the fortress, the site is nevertheless splendid and offers beautiful views of this wild part of the Gombori Mountains.