Kutaisi

Kutaisi is the most important city in western Georgia, and is believed to have been the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Colchis (Kolkheti) that Jason and his Argonauts set out for. The Golden Fleece may have been housed here before the Greeks removed it. The city remained the Kingdom of Imereti’s capital until 1508 when it was captured by Selim I, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. In the 17th century, the Imeretian kings repeatedly sought help from the Russians to liberate them from Ottoman rule, but it was not until 1770 that King Solomon I managed to do so, with the help of Catherine the Great. In the early 19th-century, Kutaisi was the centre of Georgian winemaking and of its trading.