Explore Didgori Valley: Turtle Lake, Ethnographic Museum & Kojori Fortress

The Giorgi Chitaia Open Air Museum of Ethnography displays the examples of folk architecture and craftwork from various regions of the country. The museum is named after Giorgi Chitaia, a Georgian ethnographer, who founded the museum on April 27, 1966. It is historic village populated by buildings moved there from all main territorial subdivisions of Georgia. The museum occupies 52 hectares of land and is arranged in eleven zones, displaying around 70 buildings and more than 8,000 items. The exhibition features the traditional darbazi-type and fiat-roofed stone houses from eastern Georgia, openwork wooden houses with gable roofs of straw or boards from western Georgia, watchtowers from the mountainous provinces of Khevsureti, Pshavi, and Svaneti, Megrelian and Imeretian wattle maize storages, Kakhetian wineries (marani), and Kartlian water mills as well as a collection of traditional household articles such as distaffs, knitting-frames, chums, clothes, carpets, pottery and furniture.

The earliest layers of Kojori fortress date to the late 11th century, but most of the structures are newer, dating to the 16th-18th centuries. During the Red Army invasion of Georgia in February 1921, the heights of Kojori saw heavy fighting between the Georgian and Russian SFSR forces. A monument to the Georgian Junkers (cadets) who died in this battle was erected on the site in the 1990s.

St. George Fathers' Monastery stands on Udzo Mountain (1416 metre). According to the legend, a childless man built a church and asked St. George to give him a child. His request was granted and since then (childless) childless women have come here to pray, praying to St. George and leaving an offering on one of the trees (this tree is still called the Christmas tree). The word Udzeo was also used to refer to the mountain and the church. St. George's Day is a moving Christian holiday. The day is held every year, on the Tuesday following Easter. The holiday is called infertility. The population of the nearby villages gathers on the hill.

Didgori Valley is known with The Battle of Didgori, fought between the armies of the Kingdom of Georgia and the Great Seljuq Empire on August 12, 1121. The large Muslim army, under the command of Ilghazi, was unable to maneuver, and suffered a devastating defeat due to King David IV of Georgia’s effective military tactics. The battle at Didgori was the culmination of the entire Georgian-Seljuk wars, and led to the Georgians’ reconquest of Tbilisi in 1122. Soon after that David moved the capital from Kutaisi to Tbilisi. The victory at Didgori inaugurated the medieval Georgian Golden Age and is celebrated in The Georgian Chronicles as a (the "miraculous victory"). Modern Georgians continue to remember the event as an annual September festival known as Didgoroba ("the day of Didgori")