Gori is one of the oldest cities in Georgia. It is located 76 kilometers from Tbilisi. A wide highway leads here from the capital, so the road will not take much time. Most often, tourists come here to see the two main attractions of Gori: the Joseph Stalin Museum and the rock-hewn town of Uplistsikhe.
The Museum of Joseph Stalin, leader of the USSR in 1925-1953, is located on the site of the house where he was born in 1878. Assessments of his personality and the events that took place during his reign are diametrically opposed. We will not give them our assessment. The Stalin Museum in Gori was opened in 1955, just three months before the 20th Congress of the Communist Party. At this Congress, the new leader of the USSR Nikita Khrushchev made a speech about debunking the cult of personality of Joseph Stalin. After that, monuments to Stalin were dismantled throughout the country. However, this did not affect the Stalin Museum on the site of his home in Gori. The Museum`s exposition concerns only facts from the life of Stalin and the history of the USSR.
The main building of the Stalin Museum is built in the style of a Venetian Palazzo. It describes in detail all the stages of Stalin`s life: Church Seminary, revolutionary struggle, exiles, work with Lenin, coming to power, personal life (his wife and children), World War II. In several halls, you can view gifts that Stalin received from foreign leaders and labor collectives of the USSR. You should definitely look at the small house under the marble portico – this is the house where Stalin was born. Next to it is the railway car, which Stalin used after 1941 for going to conferences in Tehran, Yalta, and Berlin.
The rock-hewn town of Uplistsikhe is located 12 kilometers east of Gori, near the village of Kvakhreli. There are two rock-hewn town in Georgia that are open to the public. Uplistsikhe is more visited due to its proximity to Tbilisi. The rock-hewn town of Vardzia is far from the main cities of Georgia, but it makes a much stronger impression.
The first caves in the Sandstone rocks on the banks of the Kura river appeared here in the 1st thousand BC. The rock-hewn town of Uplistsikhe was the cult center of these lands for several centuries. The female sun deity and other pagan gods were worshipped here. After king Mirian III converted to Christianity and baptized Georgians in Mtskheta, Christian churches began to appear in Uplistsikhe. A walk among the ruined temples, halls and cave dwellings is very interesting.
Goristsikhe fortress is located in the center of Gori at the confluence of the Kura and Bolshaya Liakhvi rivers. In Georgian, Goristsikhe means "Gori Fortress". It is a powerful citadel built on a rocky hill. A fortified settlement appeared on this site during the Hellenistic period. The fortress of the 16th century has been preserved to this day. During the earthquake of 1920, all the buildings of the fortress were destroyed. Only the walls have been preserved.
