Caucasus Adventures

After days exploring Georgia, our journey ended in the Armenian mountains, camping beside the most extraordinary relic of Soviet astronomy: the Orgov Radio-Optical Telescope.

The Apollo Cinema in Tbilisi is one of the city’s oldest surviving theatres, built in 1909 in a beautiful Art Nouveau style and later renamed “October” during the Soviet period. Now abandoned, its grand facade stands as a reminder of its past life as one of Georgia’s grandest cinemas. Built in 1909 and lit up by flood lights; the magnificent main hall of Tbilisi's Apollo Cinema Last year, we tried to get inside but couldn’t find a way in. This time, we reached out to a couple

Tskaltubo in Georgia, a once grand Soviet spa town, is now largely abandoned and quietly crumbling. I first visited here during my trip to Georgia last year, and returning was a dream.

After getting a lift from Dagva to Poti, we took a Bolt to Anaklia, which felt eerily like a complete ghost town. It’s full of closed hotels and resorts that only open in the summer, though apparently China’s planning to invest in rebuilding the town.

Travelling across Georgia with just a backpack each, we set out to photograph the country’s abandoned buildings - from pastel pink staircases to decaying Soviet-era theatres. This post covers our first stops in Shroma and Dagva, where forgotten architecture still tells vivid stories of the past. For the full gallery, including both my digital and film photographs from these locations, scroll to the end of the page to see the complete selection.

This once was one of the largest spa towns in the Soviet Union, but when the USSR collapsed in 1991, its sanatoriums were abandoned.

Located 30km away from the capital, this large industrial complex began operations in the 1948 and was one of the most important factories during the Soviet period. It produced various products made from pig iron, aluminium or iron.

Our day trip hiking around the Caucasus Mountains and Kazbegi's Gergeti Holy Trinity Church.