TSKALTUBO TOUR

A blast from the Soviet past, Tskaltubo is a wonderland for urbexers, architecture aficionados and photographers alike. The town is dripping with history and has a very unusual vibe.

The ground under Tskaltubo is crisscrossed with radon-carbonate mineral springs, which have a natural temperature of 33-35°C and are said to be beneficial to the cardiovascular and endocrine systems, as well as arthritis and rheumatism.

Tskaltubo’s “Waters of Immortality” were most likely “found” in the 13th century (according to some sources, a shepherd happened upon them). The earliest bathhouses were established in the 1870s. Tskaltubo was the most popular and developed of Georgia’s spa towns during the Soviet era, particularly in the years after WWII.

The property of Tskaltubo was bought by the state in the 1920s, and in 1931, it was designated as a balneotherapy center – a location for the treatment of medical problems using mineral water.

By the 1950s, Tskaltubo Central Park – the large green space in the centre of town – housed nine bath houses and wellness centres. Meanwhile 22 ‘Soviet neoclassicist’ sanatoria and hotels were erected around the edge of the park to accommodate guests. Since the mineral waters lose their healing properties within 3-4 minutes after being released, they can’t be pumped or bottled. Only the spas in the ‘baleonology zone’ have access to the springs, thus treatments were only offered inside the park.