Borjomi Park – Borjomi’s Mineral Water Park dates from 1850 and is a lovely place to walk. This was where the original water spring was discovered, and named Yekalerinsky Spring after the governor’s daughter, who was cured here.
You can taste different waters here free (a babushka will give you a cup to drink with) or you can walk several kilometres upstream, where you’ll find a swimming pool and some great picnic areas.
On the way, you’ll pass a number of holy trees, where locals have tied strips of material to the branches – a pagan tradition to ensure health, prosperity or fertility.
Grand-Duke Mikhail Nikolayevich Romanov, brother of the tsar and Viceroy of the Transcaucasus; he renovated the spa in 1862. built a summer residence in 1871 and then the Likani Palace in 1892-96. The railway opened in 1894 and Chekhov, Tchaikovsky, other members of the tsar’s family and Stalin were among those who came to take the waters here.
Inside the park a stately pile on the left now houses a library, and a pavilion houses taps spewing out the famous Borjomi water. Together with Narzan (from the northern Caucasus) this was the former Soviet Union’s favourite mineral water, with 300 million bottles a year being filled when times were good. It’s flavoured with sodium carbonate, tasting something like Vichy water – slightly warm and salty.
The park was refurbished in 2005, and will soon have a modern pool near the entry, as well as a roof over the springs, and restaurants, bars and a cinema. A bridge crosses the stream to new toilets and a hall with a 3-D panoramic model of Georgia, while the main promenade leads on up the right side of the valley past a cafe and play area; this gives access to the Sadgeri Arboretum, on the plateau immediately above the park, which covers I36ha and is laid out for invigorating walks for the spa patients in pine forests with splendid views.
You’ll also see the remains of a fortress, and the simple barn-like Church of Saint George, built in the 15th and 16th centuries. Outside the park gate a stylish little terminal houses a cable car to lift visitors the 100m to the arboretum and a Ferns wheel. Sadgeri can also be reached by a winding road which starts from 9 April and passes the “Composer’s House” where the next Tchaikovsky could seek inspiration on his summer holidays.
Currently (summer 2024), Borjomi Mineral Water Park is under reconstruction.