Chakvinji Fortress – If you have a walk in the foothills of Samegrelo, on the right bank of the River Chanistskali, you will come across Village Jikhashkari. At first sight, it is a typical Megrelian settlement packed with wooden houses, neat and hospitable.
However, the traveler feeling giddy with subtropical air mingled with the scent of the Black Sea, will be allured by something indomitable like insistent gaze and will be forced to look up. And up is Chakvinji fortress, overlooking the village and whole Samegrelo inviting every traveler to go along the path leading to the heaven. At about one kilometer from the main road, the dirt road turns into a footpath reaching the door of the castle…
The castle rises with its glory as unexpectedly as a mysterious surprise, as if the earth opened and released the giant guarding the abyss. Historical sources refer to Chakvinja Castle as one of the strongest in Samegrelo. According to Parmen Zakaraia, Chakvinja is one of the Georgian fortresses whose walls still bear trace of thousand-year-old bustling life. Chakvinji blocked the roads running from Svaneti and Abkhazeti. The setting is selected in the way that someone occupying it would survey the area over a long distance. Far away, below, one can see golden Colchis Plain; at dusk, the reflection of the sea romantically shimmers on the haughty walls of the castle and descends towards the River Chanistskali.
Chakvinja Castle is one of the outstanding architectural monuments of medieval Georgia. It is not the site of just one period. The fortress itself emerges in the early Middle Ages (4th -5th cc), expands and becomes powerful in the high medieval epoch and remains in existence through the Late Middle Ages. Today one can see its citadel, while below there was an urban settlement set on the slope.
Its architecture, impressive towers and dimensions. The citadel is 100 meters long and 25 meters wide. It covers an area of about a quarter of a hectare.
It must be noted that Chakvinja Castle is situated in Village Jikhashkari, not in Chakvinja. There is a village of Chakvinja a little further, at five kilometers. According to a legend, there used to be a very deep well in the village, so deep that its bottom was not visible, and chakvinja translates as the ‘bottom of the well’. Historically, present Jikhashkari was part of Village Chakvinja. It was called Jikhashkari only in the early 20th century. Even the person who changed the name of the village is known. Jikha means a castle, and jikhashkari – the door of the castle.