Gori, Georgia - Famous for the wrong reasons

 


Gory is mainly known as the birthplace of the most famous - or infamous - son of Georgia, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin. It is also known, at least by those who remember recent history, as a place where fighting took place quite recently, when Russian forces invaded South Ossetia. Not everything is that grim, though, and Gori is an interesting and pleasant city. 

The little house where Stalin was born was moved to the city's main square, and a bigger structure was built above it to protect it from the elements. This is one of the few things I remember from Georgia when I visited the country with my parents 42 years ago. Behind his house stands his statue and a big museum dedicated to his life. I gave it a miss, only checked out his bulletproof carriage. Further down Stalin Avenue there is a Soviet monument, and a government building on Stalin Square. The avenue, lined with Soviet-style buildings, continues on and crosses a river where the city's train station is. Another Stalin statue stands in its waiting room. The whole city has a very Soviet atmosphere, it's like stepping back in time. But there are other attractions too, not related to that era. The local council is housed in an ultramodern building, as in every Georgian city I've seen, and an old fortress stands on a hilltop. From it, you can see the mountains of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, occupied by Russian forces to this day. This event is remembered on the mural on one of the buildings, depicting a barbed wire fence with apples falling on the other side where Georgians cannot go. The building is marked with bullet holes as fighting also took place in Gori. It is a sad little city but steeped in history. 
















































































































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