Gagra

Gagra (Georgian: გაგრა; Abkhazian: Гагра; Russian: Гагра) is a city belonging to the partially recognized Republic of Abkhazia, center of the Gagra district, although de iure it is the capital of the Gagra municipality of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia of Georgia. Its subtropical climate made Gagra a popular climatic resort in the days of the Soviet Union and still frequented by Russian tourists.

Toponymy

According to some Georgian scholars, Gagra is derived from the meaning of Gakra (Svanan walnut). According to Soviet sports tourism master Bondaryev, the town's name comes from the local Gagaa clan. According to Professor V. Kvarchija, Gagra means "the possessor of the coast" in Abkhaz (Gagra was mentioned as Kakara, Kakkari on old maps).

Geography

Gagra is located on the shores of the Black Sea, located 83 km from Sukhumi and 22 km south of Sochi (Russia). It is bordered by the municipalities of Kholódnaya Rechka to the northwest and Koljida to the southeast.

Climate

Its location in the foothills of the Gagra Mountains creates a unique microclimate, protects the city from cold winds and keeps the sea air warm. This makes Gagra one of the hottest and driest places on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. The average annual air temperature reaches 15.2 °C, the amount of precipitation is 1400 mm/year. It is also possible to swim in the sea from May to October.

History

Picture of the Gagra boathouse between 1905 and 1915.

The city was established as a Greek colony called Triglite, inhabited by Greeks and Colchids. It was under the control of the kingdom of Pontus in the 1st century BC. C. before being absorbed by the Roman Empire, which renamed it Nitika. Its geographical position led the Romans to fortify the city, which was repeatedly attacked by the Goths and other invaders. After the fall of Rome, its successor, the Byzantine Empire, took control of the city. Along with the rest of Abkhazia, Gagra was incorporated into the Georgian kingdom of Imereti from the IX century onwards. It became an important commercial settlement in which Genoese and Venetian merchants predominated, exchanging wood, honey, wax and slaves. The name "Gagra" It first appears on a 1308 map by the Italian Pietro Visconti, which is now in the Librería de San Marco in Venice.

In the 16th century, Gagra (along with the rest of Abkhazia) was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. The merchants from the west were driven out and the city entered a prolonged period of decline, with much of the population fleeing to the mountains. By the 18th century the city had been reduced to little more than a village surrounded by forests and marshes. Their fortunes were restored in the 19th century when the Russian Empire expanded into the region, annexing Abkhazia. The swamps were drained and the town was rebuilt around a new military hospital. Its population, however, was still small: in 1866, a census revealed that 336 men and 280 women lived in Gagra, mostly local families or army officers with their dependents. The town was hit during the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878), when Turkish troops invaded the town, destroyed it and expelled the local population. Russia won the war, however, and returned to rebuild Gagra.

After the war, the town was "discovered" by Prince Alexander of Oldenburg, a member of Russian royalty. He saw the potential of the region's subtropical climate and decided to build a high-class resort there. Having amassed a large sum of government money, he built himself a palace and a number of buildings in an eclectic variety of styles from all over Europe. He installed a park with tropical trees and even imported parakeets and monkeys to give it an exotic look. Despite the costly work, the site was not initially a success, although it later attracted increasing numbers of foreign tourists on Black Sea cruises.

In the Russian revolution of 1905, a local uprising produced a revolutionary government in the town, which founded a "Republic of Gagra," which was soon defeated accompanied by a mass arrest of the revolutionaries. World War I a few years later was a disaster for Gagra, destroying the tourist exchange on which it depended. The Russian revolution of 1917 a short time later saw the Bolsheviks take the city; despite a French attempt to repel them during the Russian Civil War, the city was firmly incorporated into the new Soviet Union.

Bolshevik leader Lenin signed a decree in 1919 establishing a "resort for workers" in Gagra, nationalizing the one that Oldenburg had built. It became a popular resort for Soviet citizens and during World War II gained a new role as a site for the rehabilitation of wounded soldiers. After the war, several sanatoriums were built there. The resort grew and developed intensively as part of the 'Soviet Riviera'.

Gagra Memory Park

In the late 1980s, tensions grew between the Georgian and Abkhaz communities in the region, and an all-out war broke out in 1992-1993, the war in Abkhazia. This ended in a catastrophic defeat of Georgian government forces, which led to thousands of ethnic Georgians being driven from their homes in Abkhazia (a process in which hundreds died), in what it calls the ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia. Gagra and the Abkhazian capital, Sukhumi, were at the center of the conflict and suffered heavy damage. For example, the notable Chechen rebel commander Shamil Basayev fought in Gagra on the Abkhaz side as commander of a group of Chechen volunteers.

Today the city was ruled by Abkhaz separatists, who gradually rebuilt the city despite a lack of funds to do all the repairs and the fact that the city was left half-abandoned after the war. However, the mostly Russian inhabitants continued to go on vacation, and after Russia's recognition of Abkhazia's independence in 2008, the city gradually began to flourish again.

Demographics

The demographic evolution of Gagra between 1926 and 2019 was as follows:

The population has suffered a decline of around 50% due to the war, still remaining one of the most populous cities in Abkhazia. In the past there was no dominant ethnic group, with the largest communities being Russians and Georgians. Currently the majority of the population are Abkhazians, with significant minorities of Armenians and Russians, since the majority of Georgians were forced to flee after the war.

Infrastructure

Playa de Gagra

Monuments and places of interest

The main reason to visit Gagra is usually the beach and the weather, but there are many monuments to visit.

One of them is the Gagra Church (VI century), a temple that is considered the oldest in Abkhazia. The ruins of the Abaata fortress are also from that same period, dating from the IV-V. In a poor state of preservation is the much more modern palace of the Prince of Oldenburg, from the same century as the defensive tower of Marlinsky.

There are other places of interest such as the monument to the fallen soldiers in the Second World War, the Gagrysh restaurant. In the surroundings of Gagra is the deepest cave in the world with 2196 m depth, the Voronia cave.

Transportation

In the years 1903-1918, a horse-drawn carriage operated in Gagra. Currently, public transport in the city is represented by buses of the operator Gagra PATP. There are hourly services between Gagra and Pitsunda.

There is also a passenger rail service between Sochi and Sukhumi.

Gallery

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  View of Gagra from the Black Sea

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  Park

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  Source in the park by the sea

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  Gagrypsh Restaurant

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  Oldenburg Duke Castle

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  Church of Gagra

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  Soviet statue

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  Monument to the Fallen in World War II

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  Gagra Train Station

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  Railway tunnel

Twinned cities

Gagra is twinned with the following cities:

• Vladimir, Russia