Borjomi
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Borjomi ბორჯომი |
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| State : |
 Georgia
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| Region : | Samtskhe Javakheti | ||
| Municipality : | Borjomi | ||
| Coordinates : | 41 ° 51 ′ N , 43 ° 25 ′ E | ||
| Height : | 820 m. ü. M. | ||
| Residents : | 10,546 (2014) | ||
| Community type: | city | ||
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Borjomi ( Georgian ბორჯომი ; Russian Боржоми ) is a health resort with 10,546 inhabitants (2014) in the Georgian region of Samtskhe-Javakheti .
geography
Borjomi is 820 m above sea level. NN in the Lesser Caucasus on the Kura River and is known for its temperate climate, natural beauty and medicinal springs. The health resort borders directly on Georgia's largest nature reserve, the Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park .
Borjomi is surrounded by extensive Nordmann fir forests. Their cones were traditionally harvested as seeds for Christmas trees and exported to Western Europe. Rigorous logging in the lower layers has meanwhile decimated the fir stocks to such an extent that the cone harvest is no longer worth the effort in the region.
The spa towns of Bakuriani , Likani , Achaldaba, Taschiskari, Zagweri and Zemi are close to Borjomi. Borjomi is connected to Bakuriani, 30 kilometers away, by a road and a small train . The path leads through the Gudsaretis Zkali Gorge .
history
The oldest surviving mention of Borjomi comes from the 7th century as a tori . A historical trade route ran through the gorge. In wartime it became a gateway to Georgia. The place was devastated by Arab invaders in the 8th century and by Mongol invaders in the 13th century . At the end of the 16th century, the Ottomans relocated the residents of Bordschomis and 42 other villages to Kartlien . In the Treaty of Adrianople , Tori fell to Russia in 1829 and the place got its current name.
After the Caucasus War in 1864, the Russian viceroy Borjomi made his summer residence. From 1892 to 1895 the two-story wooden palace was expanded for the Russian tsar . In 1894 Bordschomi received a railway connection and thus a representative reception building . Rich Persians, Azerbaijanis and Russians built magnificent villas. Large spa hotels and several parks were built. The composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and the writer Leo Tolstoy were among the spa guests in Borjomi . In the Soviet era, Moscow's nomenklatura took over the villas. Josef Stalin and his secret service chief Lavrenti Beria went on vacation in the Tsar's palace. The residence was expanded to include a sanatorium complex.
After the end of the Soviet Union, the Russian tourists stayed away. The Georgian government quartered refugees from Abkhazia in the spa hotels. The villas fell into disrepair, the spa park overran and the population impoverished. Between June and September Borjomi is visited by city dwellers from Tbilisi . Occasionally there are youth camps in town. The 76,000 hectare Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park, which opened in 2003, offers a chance for tourism to emerge again. It is intended to attract vacationers from all over the world to the unspoilt mountains of Georgia. In 2006, the sanatorium complex at the Tsar's residence was sold to Kazakhstan's state oil company , KazMunayGas , for $ 10 million .
In 2005 Borjomi applied unsuccessfully to host the 2014 Winter Olympics . The project was initiated by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and was also intended to include Bakuriani.
In the course of the Caucasus conflict in 2008 , fires broke out in the area of the nature reserve, which UNOSAT has documented for August 17 and 19, 2008.
traffic
Borjomi has had a railway connection since 1884. Today it is the Chaschuri – Wale railway line . The 39 km long Borjomi – Bakuriani railway , the last operated narrow-gauge railway in Georgia , also begins here .
Attractions
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Medicinal springs
A healing water of the same name springs in Borjomi . The springs were used as early as the first millennium after Christ. Archaeologists discovered a stone bath at the foot of the Katharinen spring. In 1829 Russian soldiers brought the news of the healing water to Moscow . Spa tourism developed from 1850. In 1906, Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich Romanov founded the first bottling plant for water in Borjomi and introduced the brand with the name of the spa in Russia . It still exists today and is now owned by the Dutch-Georgian company Georgian Glass and Mineral Water (GG&MW). The company exports it mainly to Russia, but also to Western Europe , the USA and Israel . The export makes about ten percent of Georgian exports.
The healing water is a hydrogen carbonate - sodium - acid , which is effective against diseases of the gastrointestinal tract , the liver , the pancreas and metabolic diseases . Because of its high fluoride content , the water is also used to prevent tooth decay .
The healing water can be taken from various springs in Borjomi free of charge. At the fountain in the spa gardens it is around 36 ° C and is slightly natural carbonated.
Cultural monuments
Not far from Bordschomi are the medieval fortress Zichisdschwari , which withstood a siege by the Mongols in 1261, the Timothes Ubani monastery with a cross- domed church from the 12th and 13th centuries, the Sadgeni church from the 14th and 15th centuries, the Sadgeni castle from the 18th century, the 9th century Tadsrisi Monastery, and Kwiriketi and Nedswi Monasteries , founded in 840. The Nedswi monastery housed the Georgian theologian and translator Giorgi Mtazmindeli in 1060 .
Hazards
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline runs above Bordschomis . Because the city is also in an earthquake-prone region, the project is controversial among environmentalists . Before the automatic shut-off system installed to deal with accidents responded after ten minutes, around 7,000 tons of crude oil could escape from the pipeline and flow into the gorge. It would reach Borjomi in four hours. If the oil leaks below the limit of 0.5 percent noticeable by pressure detectors, around 800 tons of oil could escape every day. The gorge's ecosystem could suffer significant damage.
In April 2005, after continuous rain, there was a landslide that destroyed various houses.
Town twinning
Borjomi maintains a city partnership with the following cities :
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Philippi , West Virginia ( USA ), since 2006
sons and daughters of the town
- Sergei Romanov (1869–1918), Russian nobleman
- Nodar Kumaritashvili (1988–2010), luge rider
- Rewas Laschchi (* 1988), wrestler
See also
Web links
- History and sights of Bordschomis
- Website of the mineral water producer Georgian Glass and Mineral Water (English, Russian)
- Homepage of the 2014 Winter Olympics candidacy (English, Russian, German)
Individual evidence
- ↑ unosat.org ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF)
