Tskaltubo's abandoned sanatoriums: Stalin's spa town and its strange afterlife

The spa that broke and is slowly being rebuilt

Tskaltubo, in western Georgia’s Imereti region, was Stalin’s favourite spa. Between the 1930s and the 1970s, it hosted more than 125,000 visitors each year at the peak of its operation — senior Soviet functionaries, decorated workers, Red Army officers, the privileged class of the USSR — and built a dense cluster of vast neoclassical and modernist sanatoriums around its radon-mineral springs. The architecture was extravagant. The scale was extraordinary. The whole operation was built to project the Soviet vision of collective leisure at full volume.

Then the USSR collapsed. The sanatoriums closed. The buildings were taken over by Georgian refugees from the 1992-93 Abkhazian war, who lived in them for two decades, raising families in what had been Stalin-era therapy rooms. By the 2010s, most of the buildings were partially abandoned, with the refugees still in the living quarters, the grand halls and treatment rooms empty, the painted ceilings peeling, the marble staircases cracked.

In 2020 the Georgian government launched a programme to restore Tskaltubo as a spa destination. Some of the sanatoriums are being restored to hotel standard; the Radisson Collection opening in 2024 was the first major international brand to commit. Others remain in the slow process of ruin.

For travellers, Tskaltubo in this specific decade is one of the most interesting places in the Caucasus — a functioning spa town, a photographic subject without parallel in Europe, and a rare view of a specific Soviet idea about what leisure and the human body should look like.

Stalin, the radon, and the medical theory

The thermal water at Tskaltubo emerges from eight springs at temperatures between 33 and 35 degrees, with a specific chemistry — slightly radioactive, rich in dissolved radon — that was considered therapeutic in Soviet-era balneology.

The radon concentration is low (approximately 1-1.5 nCi/L, well below levels considered harmful by modern standards). The water is drunk, bathed in, and inhaled as vapour. The claimed benefits in the Soviet literature include improvement of cardiovascular conditions, musculoskeletal disorders, and various peripheral nervous system complaints.

Stalin visited repeatedly between 1938 and 1951, occupying the purpose-built Stalin Bathhouse (Bathhouse No. 6) whose private pool is preserved as a small museum.

The medical infrastructure that developed around the springs included roughly 20 major sanatoriums operating simultaneously at peak capacity in the 1960s. Each sanatorium had its own pools, treatment rooms, dining halls, accommodation blocks, and (often) its own theatre and cultural programme.

The sanatoriums: which to visit

Several of the sanatoriums are in partial use or open to visitors. Others are restricted. A brief working survey of the most photographically and historically significant buildings:

Sanatorium Medea

The grandest of the sanatoriums, with a vast colonnaded entrance, a 15-metre-tall main hall, and a curved facade facing the central park. Partially abandoned. The frescoed ceilings in the main hall are the single most-photographed interior in Tskaltubo. Access to the main halls is negotiable with the refugee residents; tipping 10-20 GEL is customary.

A Marriott-branded restoration of Sanatorium Medea is planned, with opening targeted for late 2025. At the time of writing, the building remains in its pre-restoration state.

Sanatorium Shakhtiori

“The Miner’s Sanatorium” — built for workers in the USSR’s coal industry. Brutalist in character, with strong concrete forms and a vast dining hall. Partially in ruin; partially still occupied by former refugees. The exterior is one of the most visually distinctive in Tskaltubo.

Sanatorium Metallurg

Built for the steelworkers. Art Deco exterior, surprisingly intact interior with mosaics and period finishes. The building is being renovated as part of the ongoing programme. The interior is not currently open to the public but the exterior is a standard stop on the Tskaltubo walking circuit.

Bathhouse No. 6 (Stalin’s Bathhouse)

Preserved as a small historical site. The private bathing pool where Stalin himself took the waters is visible. Minor museum exhibits in the surrounding rooms. Entry typically 10 GEL.

Bathhouse No. 9

The main functioning public bathhouse, open to visitors for thermal bathing. The experience is basic, Soviet-era, and perfectly pleasant. Entry approximately 10 GEL; private room options available for 40-80 GEL per hour.

Sanatorium Tbilisi

Perhaps the most architecturally ambitious building — an octagonal domed main hall with a vast interior space. Partially restored, partially in ruin. Access is negotiated with the on-site caretaker.

Sanatorium Imereti

Restored and operational as an active sanatorium catering primarily to Georgian domestic visitors. Standards are modest but clean; rooms from 80-120 GEL per night with full board.

The Radisson Collection Tskaltubo

Opened in 2024 in the restored Sanatorium Iveria building. The first international-brand operation in Tskaltubo. 156 rooms, full spa, two restaurants, premium rates from 250 EUR per night. The quality benchmark for the ongoing Tskaltubo restoration programme.

Photography ethics

The sanatoriums are photographic subjects of exceptional quality — the scale, the decay, the specific quality of Soviet-era grandeur collapsing in slow motion. They are also, in many cases, people’s homes.

The refugees who have lived in the sanatoriums for 30 years are the descendants of families displaced from Abkhazia in the 1992-93 war. They have lived in these buildings longer than they lived anywhere else. They have raised children in them.

Photographing is acceptable and in most cases welcomed, but with caveats:

• Ask permission before photographing any specific person or any personal living space
• Do not photograph children without explicit permission from adults
• Tip generously when shown around (20-50 GEL is appropriate)
• Recognise that these are not abandoned buildings in a European “urban exploration” sense — they are populated buildings with ongoing human life

The ethically sound Tskaltubo visit engages with the current residents rather than treating the buildings as a backdrop.

Combining with Prometheus Cave

The single most common Tskaltubo visit combines the sanatoriums with a half-day at Prometheus Cave, 18 kilometres away. The combination works well as a day trip from Kutaisi:

Morning: Prometheus Cave tour (90 minutes walking, optional boat ride at the end).

Afternoon: Tskaltubo sanatoriums walking circuit (2-3 hours), optional thermal bath at Bathhouse No. 9, lunch at one of the restaurants near the central park.

Evening: Return to Kutaisi or continue to Batumi (2 hours) or Tbilisi (3.5 hours).

For travellers specifically interested in Tskaltubo, an overnight stay at the Radisson Collection or one of the functioning sanatoriums adds the experience of the thermal programme beyond a basic bath visit.

Book a Tskaltubo and Prometheus Cave day tour with GetYourGuide

The central park

Tskaltubo’s central park — a circular layout with the bathhouses and sanatoriums arranged around a formal garden — is one of the most complete surviving examples of Stalin-era landscape design in the Caucasus. Fountains, statuary, wide avenues, a central bandstand. The park itself is well-maintained; the surrounding buildings are in varying states of repair.

Walking the full circuit of the park takes about an hour. The park is the logical organising route for a Tskaltubo visit: start at Bathhouse No. 6, walk clockwise past each of the major sanatoriums, end at Bathhouse No. 9 for the thermal bath.

What’s next for Tskaltubo

The government’s development plan envisions Tskaltubo as a major Georgian spa destination by 2030, with approximately 10 of the major sanatoriums restored as hotels or active sanatoriums. The Radisson Collection (open), Marriott at Sanatorium Medea (targeted 2025), and several Georgian-owned premium operations are in various stages of development.

The intention is a full-service spa destination with international-quality accommodation, restaurants, and supporting infrastructure — broadly comparable to Karlovy Vary or Vichy.

For travellers, the next 3-5 years offer a specific and narrowing window: the sanatoriums as both historical monument and active community, before the full transformation. Once the restoration is complete, Tskaltubo will be a different place — quieter, more commercial, more polished — and the version that exists in the mid-2020s will not come back.

Practical details

Location: Tskaltubo is 13 km north-west of Kutaisi, 45 minutes from Kutaisi International Airport, 3.5 hours from Tbilisi.

Transport: Taxi from Kutaisi (30 GEL), marshrutka from Kutaisi bus station (2 GEL, 30 minutes), or organised tour from Kutaisi or Tbilisi.

Accommodation: Radisson Collection (premium), Hotel Argo (mid-range), Sanatorium Imereti (basic but authentic), several small guesthouses.

Timing: Allow minimum half-day for a reasonable visit. Full day including Prometheus Cave. Overnight for the spa experience.

Best season: Year-round, but specifically interesting in autumn and spring (atmospheric light on the architecture) and in winter (fewer visitors, starker buildings).

Why this matters

The Tskaltubo sanatoriums are a unique document of a specific idea: the Soviet theory of collective leisure as a state-provided therapy. The scale of the buildings, the level of decoration, the integration of medical treatment with cultural programming, the location of all of this in a small Georgian town — these together tell a story about the USSR that is not available anywhere else at this scale.

The buildings are also, in most cases, literally crumbling. A small number will be restored and will survive. A larger number will not and will be demolished or collapse over the next decade.

For travellers interested in architecture, in 20th-century history, in the specifically uncomfortable question of what to do with the material heritage of a regime whose human costs are well-documented, Tskaltubo is worth a careful visit. It is not a comfortable experience. It is a specifically interesting one.

See also the broader Imereti destination page and the Prometheus Cave guide for planning the wider Imereti region.