Oni (Georgia)
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Oni ონი |
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| State : |
 Georgia
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| Region : | Ratscha-Letschchumi and Lower Swanetia | ||
| Municipality : | Oni | ||
| Coordinates : | 42 ° 35 ' N , 43 ° 26' E | ||
| Height : | 830 m. ü. M. | ||
| Residents : | 2,656 (2014) | ||
| Time zone : | Georgian Time (UTC + 4) | ||
| Community type: | city | ||
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Oni ( Georgian ონი ) is a city in the Georgian region of Ratscha-Letschchumi and Lower Vanetia .
Oni is the administrative center of the homonymous municipality Oni and has 2,656 inhabitants (2014).
location
The place is located in the northern central part of Georgia about 150 km northwest of the capital Tbilisi and 25 km east of the regional capital Ambrolauri on the left bank of the Rioni above the confluence of its left tributary Djedschora . The main ridge of the Greater Caucasus with the border with Russia runs about 30 km northeast of the city . In the immediate vicinity of Oni, the mountains rise to over 2000 m above sea level.
history
According to archaeological finds, the area of today's city of Oni was already inhabited in the Bronze Age; Coins found there originate from later epochs that belong to the Colchian culture of the 6th to 3rd centuries BC. Were assigned. The exact year the town was founded is unknown. The first written references come from the 15th century. As a result, Oni was the capital of the Principality of Ratcha , a vassal state of the Kingdom of Imereti . In 1810 Oni came with this to the Russian Empire and in 1846 received the (Russian) city rights as the administrative seat of the Ujesds Ratscha of the Kutais Governorate .
During the Soviet period, several surrounding villages were incorporated and the city was the administrative center of a Rajon . In the past few decades, Oni has been affected several times by earthquakes and avalanches . On April 29, 1991, the city was severely damaged by the worst earthquake ever recorded in this part of the Caucasus (magnitude 7.0 on the Richter scale ; MSK IX).
For a long time Oni was one of the most important centers of Georgian Jews . As a result of the wave of emigration from 1990 onwards, only a few Jewish families remained; nevertheless, the Jewish community Oni is the third largest in Georgia after Tbilisi and Kutaisi .
Oni Synagogue
Inside of the synagogue
Oni coat of arms from the time of the Russian Empire (19th century)
- Population development
| year | Residents |
|---|---|
| 1897 | 1255 |
| 1959 | 4385 |
| 1970 | 6149 |
| 1979 | 6174 |
| 1989 | 5481 |
| 2002 | 3340 |
| 2014 | 2656 |
Note: census data
Culture and sights
In Oni, ruins of old fortification systems from the time of the Principality of Ratcha and several Georgian Orthodox churches have been preserved, as well as the synagogue from the 1890s, which was designed by a Polish architect. Since 1952 there has been a local history museum, today called Ratscha Regional Museum , with an extensive collection of archaeological, ethnographic, numismatic, natural history and other exhibits.
Economy and Infrastructure
In Oni there are light and food industries (wine, dairy products).
The Ossetian Army Road runs through the city, coming from Russia over the 2820 m high Mamisson Pass of the Greater Caucasus and down the Rioni via Ambrolauri to Kutaisi . A road branches off in Oni, which runs up the Jedschora into the eastern part of the municipality to the town of Kwaissi , 20 km away, and has a connection to the Transcaucasian trunk road via Tskhinvali to Tbilisi and is the shortest connection to central Georgia. However, Kwaissi and the surrounding area are located on the territory claimed and controlled by the de facto independent Republic of South Ossetia , so that this route has not been navigable since the Caucasus War in 2008 , as the crossings to South Ossetia are closed.
sons and daughters of the town
- Gerzel Baasowi (1904–1938), Jewish-Georgian poet and playwright
- Micheil Mrewlishvili (1904–1980), Georgian writer and playwright
Town twinning
Web links
- Article Oni in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (BSE) , 3rd edition 1969–1978 (Russian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Population Census 2014
- ↑ Jewish History, Rebirth Celebrated in Ex-Soviet Republic of Georgia ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS , November 3, 2005 (English)
- ↑ Website of the museum (English)
