Gonio-Apsaros Archaeological Reserve Museum near Batumi

The Gonio fortress in Georgia is situated near the Black Sea resort of Batumi. It is a village fortress on 4.5 hectares in the town of Adjara, 15 kilometres from Batumi, towards the Turkish border.

Previously called the Apsaros fortress it is the oldest fortress in Georgia – the name is said to have originated from the ancient Greek myth about Jason and the Argonauts in the ancient Colchis Kingdom. It was the place where King Aet’s son Apsyrtus, killed by Jason, was buried. The river Chorokhi was previously call the Apsaros/Akamphsis/Harpasos river.

The Gonio-Apsaros Archaeological-Architectural Reserve Museum – its full title – was built in the 13th-8th centuries BCE. It also the tomb of the Apostle Mathew, one of Jesus Christ’s twelve disciples. The legend indicates that after Christ’s death, Mathew travelled with St. Andrew and St. Simon Canaanean (Zelot) to the Gonio fortress to preach. It was in this location where he died.

First a Roman fortress, there were five supplementary reserve troops stationed in the fortress, which is about 1,200-1,500 soldiers. It was later used in the Byzantine period. In 1547 the Ottoman Turks captured the Gonio-Apsaros fortress. In 1878, the region, including the fortress, was under the protectorate of the Russian Empire.

The total length of the wall is 900 metres, and is five metres high. There were initially 22 seven-metre-high towers along the perimeter, but 18 remain. It had four entries/exits, but only the western entrance is intact. The fortress contained Roman baths, military barracks, a sewerage system, water reservoirs, and wells.

An archaeological excavation is still underway, and scientists continue to reveal more items, such as pots, drinking vessels, beads, rings, necklaces, glass bottles, spearheads, and other tools. The Georgian government changed its status to Reserve Museum in 1994.

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