Hotel Medea Tskaltubo

THE ABANDONED HOTEL IN GEORGIA

‘Hotel Medea’ is an abandoned hotel and sanatorium in the spa resort Tskaltubo, a village in west-central Georgia. The once-grand concrete structure was built in 1954 and abandoned after the Soviet Union collapsed.

The healing mineral water was already discovered by local shepherds in the 13th century. In 1920 the territory of Tskaltubo became state property and it acquired the function of spa resort. Before the Second World War a couple of sanatoriums were built here, but the town flourished after the war. Tskaltubo mineral water cured diseases from the limbs, peripheral nervous system and skin. It should also cured cardiac and vascular diseases.

With its countless columns and blue archways, the facade of Hotel Medea was certainly an impressive building. It is built in the classical Stalinist architecture. Works started in 1954 and the hotel was finished in 1962. There were daily direct trains from Moscow and other main cities in the Soviet Union arriving to the town daily. Over 125.000 people were visiting Tskaltubo every year. The most known visitor was probably Stalin who had a private cottage nearby.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, the town of Tskaltubo, that was visited mostly by guests from Russia, was abandoned. The hotels and sanatoria were left empty to crumble and decay. However they did not remain empty for long. When war broke out in the nearby Abkhazia region in 1992, an estimated 200.000 ethnic Georgians fled from the conflict, and some 9.000 refugees were given temporary shelter in Tskaltubo’s vacant sanatoriums. Twenty-five years later, hundreds of families are still living here.

Built 1954

Abandoned 1991

Endangered