Kutaisi


Kutaisi is a city in the Imereti region of the Republic of Georgia. One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, it is the 3rd-largest city in Georgia after Tbilisi and Batumi with a population of 123,000 as of 2025. It lies west of Tbilisi, on the Rioni River, and is the capital of Imereti.
Historically one of the major cities of Georgia, it served as the political center of Colchis in the Middle Ages as the capital of the Kingdom of Abkhazia and Kingdom of Georgia and later as the capital of the Kingdom of Imereti. From October 2012 to December 2018, Kutaisi was the seat of the Parliament of Georgia as an effort to decentralize the Georgian government.

History

Archaeological evidence indicates that the city functioned as the capital of the Colchis in the sixth to fifth centuries BC. It is believed that in the Argonautica, a Greek epic poem about Jason and the Argonauts and their journey to Colchis, author Apollonius Rhodius considered Kutaisi their final destination as well as the residence of King Aeëtes.
Later, it was the capital of the kingdom of Lazica until being occupied briefly by the Arabs. An Arab invasion into western Georgia was repelled by Abkhazians jointly with Lazic and Iberian allies in 736, towards c.786, Leon II won his full independence from the Byzantine Empire and transferred his capital to Kutaisi, thus unifying Lazica and Abasgia via a dynastic union. The latter led the unification of the Georgian monarchy in the 11th century.
From 1008 to 1122, Kutaisi served as the capital of the Kingdom of Georgia, and, from the 15th century until 1810, it was the capital of the Kingdom of Imereti. In 1508, the city was conquered by Selim I, who was the son of Bayezid II, the sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
During the 17th century, Imeretian kings made many appeals to the Russian Empire to help them in their struggle for independence from the Ottomans. All these appeals were ignored as Russia did not want to spoil relations with the Ottomans. Only in the reign of Catherine the Great, in 1768, were troops of general Gottlieb Heinrich Totleben sent to join the forces of King Heraclius II of Georgia, who hoped to reconquer the Ottoman-held southern Georgian lands, with Russian help. Totleben helped King Solomon I of Imereti to recover his capital, Kutaisi, on August 6, 1770.
Finally, the Russian-Turkish wars ended in 1810 with the annexation of the Imeretian Kingdom by the Russian Empire. The city was the administrative capital of the Kutaisi uezd and the larger Kutaisi Governorate, which included much of west Georgia.
In March 1879, the city was the site of a blood libel trial that attracted attention all over the Russian Empire. Nine Georgian Jews from Sachkhere were falsely accused of killing a Christian girl and using her blood for allegedly Jewish religious purposes. The trial took place at the Kutaisi Circuit Court, which had been established in 1868 as one of several new courts in the Caucasus created by Tsar Alexander II.'s Judicial Reform. After a ten-day trial, with nearly 70 witnesses, the nine defendants were acquitted as the defense lawyers Petr Aleksandrov, Lev Kupernik and Moisei Kikodze convinced the judges that the accusations against the Jewish men were mostly based on false testimony.
Kutaisi was a major industrial center before Georgia's independence on 9 April 1991. Independence was followed by the economic collapse of the country, and, as a result, many inhabitants of Kutaisi have had to work abroad. Small-scale trade prevails among the rest of the population.
In 2011, Mikheil Saakashvili, the president of Georgia, signed a constitutional amendment relocating the parliament to Kutaisi. On 26 May 2012, Saakashvili inaugurated the new Parliament building in Kutaisi. This was done in an effort to decentralize power and shift some political control closer to Abkhazia, although it has been criticized as marginalizing the legislature, and also for the demolition of a Soviet War Memorial formerly at the new building's location. The subsequent government of the Georgian Dream passed a new constitution that moved the parliament back to Tbilisi, effective from January 2019.

Culture

Landmarks

The landmark of the city is the ruined Bagrati Cathedral, built by Bagrat III, king of Georgia, in the early 11th century. The Gelati Monastery a few km east of the city, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. One of the famous churches in Georgia is Motsameta monastery. It is named after two saints, brothers David and Constantine. They were the Dukes of Margveti, and were martyred by Arab invaders in the 8th century. Besides the churches, there are other places of note such as: Sataplia Cave, where one can observe footprints of dinosaurs; ruins of Geguti Palace, which was one of the residences of Georgian monarchs; "Okros Chardakhi" – Georgian Kings' Palace; the Mtatsminda Pantheon, where many notable citizens are buried.
The Kutaisi Synagogue was built in 1885.

Museums and other cultural institutions

  • Kutaisi State Historical Museum
  • Kutaisi Museum of Sport
  • Kutaisi Museum of Martial Art
  • Museum of Zakaria Paliashvili
  • Kutaisi State Historical Archive
  • Kutaisi State Scientific-Universal Library
  • Akaki Tsereteli State University
  • David Kakabadze Kutaisi Fine Art Gallery

    Theatres and cinema

  • Kutaisi Lado Meskhishvili State Academic Theatre
  • Kutaisi Meliton Balanchivadze State Opera House
  • Kutaisi Iakob Gogebashvili State Puppet Theatre
  • Cinema and Entertaining Center "Suliko"
  • Hermann-Wedekind-Jugendtheater

    Education

Higher educational institutions in Kutaisi:
Local newspapers include: Kutaisi, Imeretis Moabe, Akhali Gazeti, and Kutaisuri Versia. Other publications include Chveneburebi, a journal published by the Ministry of Diaspora Issues, and Gantiadi, a scientific journal.
TV: "Rioni";
Also nearly all of Georgia's national-level newspapers, journals and television stations have their representatives in Kutaisi.

Geography

Kutaisi is located along both banks of the Rioni River. The city lies at an elevation of above sea level. To the east and northeast Kutaisi is bounded by the Northern Imereti Foothills, to the north by the Samgurali Range, and to the west and the south by the Colchis Plain.

Landscape

Kutaisi is surrounded by deciduous forests to the northeast and the northwest. The low-lying outskirts of the city have a largely agricultural landscape. The city center has many gardens and its streets are lined with high, leafy trees. In the springtime, when the snow starts to melt in the nearby mountains, the storming Rioni River in the middle of the city is heard far beyond its banks.

Climate

Kutaisi has a humid subtropical climate with a well-defined on-shore/monsoonal flow during the autumn and winter months. The summers are generally hot, while the winters are wet and cool. The average annual temperature in the city is. January is the coldest month with an average temperature of while August is the hottest month with an average temperature of. The absolute maximum is recorded on 30 July 2000.
Average annual precipitation is around. Rain may fall in every season of the year. The city often experiences heavy, wet snowfall in the winter, but the snow cover usually does not last for more than a week. There are roughly 15.5 days a year with snow depth. Kutaisi experiences powerful easterly winds in the summer which descend from the nearby mountains.

Demographics

Administrative division

There are 13 administrative units in Kutaisi:
  1. Avtokarkhana
  2. Gamarjveba
  3. Gumati
  4. Vakisubani
  5. Kakhianouri
  6. Mukhnari
  7. Nikea
  8. Sapichkhia
  9. Sulkhan-Saba
  10. Ukimerioni
  11. City-museum
  12. Dzelkviani
  13. Zastava

    Politics

Mayor

The most recent mayoral election was held on 2 October 2021, with a runoff held on 30 October, and the results were as follows:

List of elected mayors of Kutaisi
  • Ioseb Khakhaleishvili
  • Giorgi Chighvaria
  • Shota Murghulia

    City council

The Kutaisi city council governs the city alongside the Mayor. The most recent city council election was held on October 2, 2021, and the results were as follows:
! colspan=2| Party
! Lead candidate
! Votes
! %
! +/-
! Seats
! +/-
! colspan=3| Total
! 68,486
! 100.0
!
! 35
! ±10
! colspan=3| Electorate/voter turnout
! 153,861
! 44.53
! 0.81
!
!

Economy

Kutaisi has traditionally been an important industrial center in Georgia, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union most of the old manufacturing lines either stopped working or had to greatly reduce their operations. Nevertheless, the city continues to be an important regional center for the greater Imereti area, acting as a commercial hub for the surrounding countryside. In recent years, the city has started attracting more investment from various multinational corporations.
The Auto Mechanical Plant, originally established in 1945, is located in Kutaisi.
There are two free industrial zones in Kutaisi: The Kutaisi free industrial zone and the Hualing free industrial zone. The Kutaisi FIZ was created in 2009 and was established on the initiative of Fresh Electric, an Egypt-based home appliances producer. The Hualing FIZ operates since 2015, and specializes in wood and stone processing, furniture and mattress production and metal construction. Both of the free industrial zones offer multiple incentives to investors such as tax exemptions and reduced barriers for trade.
In 2019, German solar panel manufacturer AE Solar opened a new, fully automated manufacturing line in Kutaisi. With a total output of 500 MW per year it is the largest solar panel factory under one roof in Europe. During the same year Changan Automobile announced plans to construct an electric car factory in Kutaisi, with an annual production capacity of up to 40,000 vehicles. The company plans to export annually about 20,000 cars to the EU. The factory plans to employ about 3,000 people.