Dmanisi Castle

Dmanisi Castle lies north of the village of Patara Dmanisi, in the Dmanisi municipality in the Kvemo Kartli region in Georgia.

Dmanisi Castle was the fortress of the town of the same name. It was built on the highest point of the town.

The town of Dmanisi was first mentioned in the 9th century as a possession of the Arab emirate of Tbilisi, though the area had been settled since the Early Bronze Age.

In the 1080s, the town was conquered by the Seljuks, but was later liberated by the kings David IV of Georgia and Demetrius I of Georgia between 1123 and 1125. After that it became a royal fortress and was an important economic and strategic town.

At the end of the 14th century, the Turco-Mongol armies of Timur (Tamerlane) laid waste to the town. In 1486 it was sacked again, this time by the Aq Qoyunlu (White Sheep Turkomans). After this, Dmanisi never recovered and declined to a scarcely inhabited village by the 18th century.

The castle, controlled by the Orbeliani family, was kept in use until the end of the 18th century.

Not much is left of Dmanisi Castle but the foundations of a mighty keep and the ruins of buildings in what (probably) was the bailey.

At present Dmanisi Castle can freely be visited during opening hours. A nice site, especially in combination with the Dmanisi Sioni (a 6th century Orthodox Christian cathedral) and the archaeological site where the oldest fossils of early humans outside of Africa were found, dating back some 1.8 million years.

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