The Gremi Settlement Museum shows finds from the excavations of the town that was the capital of the Kakhetian kingdom in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The display holds ceramics, coins, building details and material explaining the plan of the vanished town. Without that context the citadel on the hill looks like just a fortress; with it, it reads as the remnant of a whole city.
The museum stands at the foot of the hill with the royal citadel and the Church of the Archangels, in the Kvareli municipality. Around it are the Alazani valley, vineyards and the view of the Caucasus range. The site is compact, all within a walk.
The collection takes half an hour, and the whole complex with the climb to the citadel about an hour and a half. Mornings are easier, before the groups arrive. A few hundred metres away a second collection works in the royal quarter.
Tips
- Start with the museum, then climb to the citadel, it makes more sense that way
- Wear comfortable shoes, the climb to the church is on a path
- Combine the visit with the second Gremi collection nearby
How to get there
- West from Kvareli along the road towards Gremi, about fifteen minutes by car
- Roughly forty minutes from Telavi via Shilda and Gremi
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