Gori Fortress is a medieval citadel in Georgia, standing above the city of Gori on a rocky hill.
The fortress is very well visible from the city, unfortunately, I have never climbed up to the fortress, but I believe very cool aerial photos might be taken from here. At the bottom of the fortress, there is located the Memorial of Georgian Warrior Heroes consisting of 8 (?) sculptures of Georgian Warriors.
The fortress first appears in the 13th-century records but archeological evidence shows that the area had already been fortified in the last centuries BC. The fortress controlled major strategic and economic routes and accommodated a large garrison.
Gori Fortress
In the 16th century, the Ottomans captured it to overawe Tbilisi. In 1598 the Georgians besieged it to no avail; in 1599 they feigned a relaxation of the siege for Lent before launching a surprise attack at night to regain the citadel.[1] The fortress continued to change hands between the Georgians and the Persians in the 17th century.
The citadel acquired the present-day form under the Georgian kings Rostom of Kartli in the 1630s and Erekle II in 1774. After the Russian annexation of Georgia in 1801, the fortress was garrisoned by a Russian grenadier battalion, but its importance gradually declined and the fortifications went defunct. The British Encyclopædia Metropolitana reported in 1845:
The Memorial of Georgian Warrior Heroes at the bottom of Gori fortress
The sculptures that comprise the Memorial of Georgian Warrior Heroes were made between 1981-85 by Georgian sculptor Giorgi Ochiauri and placed around the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Vake Park in Tbilisi. In 2009 the sculptures were moved to their present location at the foot of Gori Fortress in the city of Gori. Source: ABOUT SIGHTS – THE MEMORIAL OF GEORGIAN WARRIOR HEROES IN GORI
The Memorial of Georgian Warrior Heroes at the bottom of Gori fortress
At the foot of a chain of low sand-stone hills stands the Town and Fortress of Gori, (perhaps the Gursenna of Strabo,) the next place in magnitude and importance to Tiflis. The Castle, an oblong, 200 paces in length, placed sixteen fathoms above the level of the Liakhvi, running at the foot of the hill on which it stands, is now abandoned, a Chapel in its South-Eastern angle being the only part in use.
Gori Fortress was significantly damaged by the earthquake in 1920. The best-preserved structure is Tskhra-kara ("the Nine-gated"), which looks to the west, and is adjoined by the supplementary walls on the south and east.