Akhtala (Gurjaani)

According to the Georgian scholar Prince Vakhushti's geography of Georgia, finalized in 1745, Akhtala "is said to be a former village and buried by wrath; tar is discharged, steaming, and brings on the surface spoons, jars, and peasants' commodities".[1] By the time the British diplomat Oliver Wardrop visited Georgia in 1887, Akhtala had already been used as a spa, "a muddy hollow in which are slime baths, resorted to by persons suffering from rheumatism, scrofula, and many other diseases; the baths are simply round holes full of mud, in the middle of which an evil-smelling gas slowly bubbles up; the largest bath of all is reserved for cattle".[2]

Beginning in the 1920s, Akhtala's potential for balneotherapy was studied and exploited by the Georgian Institute of Resorts and Physiotherapy. In the 1990s, the Akhtala spa became a joint stock company. In 2006, descendants of the noble family of Andronikashvili attempted to claim the resort, fruitlessly, as their patrimonial estate lost to the Soviet state in 1924.[3]