Hotel Sakartvelo, Tskaltubo, Georgia

Hotel Sakartvelo is one of the many abandoned resort buildings scattered across the spa town of Tskaltubo in western Georgia. Once part of a busy Soviet-era holiday industry, the hotel is now an empty shell of concrete and broken stairwells. The stripped and bare corridors and structure conceal a beautiful oasis at its heart. An old pool adorned with ocean-themed mosaics, accented with a beautiful fig tree. Nature is beginning to reclaim this place, adding her special and beautiful touch to this space.

I visited Hotel Sakartvelo during my 2022 Georgia & Armenia Tour while exploring lost Soviet-era spas and hotels across Tskaltubo.

The Spa Town Of Tskaltubo In The Soviet Era

During the Soviet period, Tskaltubo became one of the USSR’s most important spa towns. The springs’ radon and carbonate content are said to aid circulatory, nervous, and skin conditions. From the 1930s, the state developed the town into a large medical tourism hub. Workers from across the USSR arrived on subsidised health trips, often staying several weeks at a time to enjoy state-subsidised vacations.

By the 1950s and 1960s, Tskaltubo was home to dozens of sanatoria, hotels, bathhouses, and leisure facilities. At its peak, the town received more than 100,000 visitors each year.

The collapse of the USSR in 1991 brought the tourism bubble to a sudden end. With the health tourism industry gone, many hotels and spas closed soon after. Several buildings were later (and still are) used as housing for people displaced during the Abkhazia conflict. Alongside these, others fell into disuse and decay. Hotel Sakartvelo belongs firmly in the latter group.

History of Hotel Sakartvelo

The Soviet government constructed Hotel Sakartvelo, commissioning the project in the early 1970s. It operated as one of the regular tourist hotels in the town, with guests staying here while taking treatments at the nearby bathhouses. It was not one of the grand sanatoria, but rather a comfortable mid-range hotel intended for holidaymakers and workers.

Very little information or documentation exists about this specific hotel. What is clear is that the hotel closed soon after the Soviet collapse. With no state funding and the loss of the regular stream of guests, Hotel Sakartvelo eventually joined the long list of abandoned Tskaltubo buildings.

Exploring the Ruins of Hotel Sakartvelo

Most of Hotel Sakartvelo’s interior now stands as bare concrete. The walls are stripped back to the concrete skeleton. The damaged floors, balconies, and stairwells are even missing in places.

The most captivating part of the hotel is the central atrium. This section rises three storeys high, with a shallow pool on the ground floor. Given its depth, it appears to be more of a decorative water feature than a functional swimming pool. The tall internal walls of the atrium enclose the pool, creating a dramatic open and airy space. Quite stark, in the building’s present condition!

Time and the elements destroyed the glass roof that once covered this atrium. Only the rusted metal framework remains overhead, forming an open grid through which daylight enters, giving the space an airy feel.

The pool floor features an elaborate mosaic. The design includes stylised fish in bright colours, along with shapes that resemble starfish and strands of seaweed. Across the back wall is a second mosaic panel. To my eyes, it resembles a vertical spray of water supporting a stylised glowing sun. The imagery appears to be an ode to Tskaltubo’s spa heritage, where water was always the central theme.