🏛️ Romanov Residences in Georgia: Why There Are Four Palaces and Which One People Look For in Chakvi

A search for 'Romanov palace' in Georgia leads to four different places, and visitors confuse them constantly. Here they are in order, starting with the one at Chakvi.

🌊 Chakvi: three palaces by the sea

At Chakvi, a village between Batumi and Kobuleti, the Romanovs built three palaces. Construction began around 1907, at the same time as Countess Fesenko's villa in neighbouring Makhinjauri.

The location was not accidental. After Batumi was taken from the Ottomans, the Adjaran coast became the new south for the Russian nobility: a warm climate, subtropics, the sea. Tea plantations and a botanical garden were being laid out here at the same time.

This is the site most often searched for in Georgian as რომანოვების სასახლე ჩაქვში, and our page ranks second for it.

The map point and reviews are on the Royal Palace of the Romanovs page. On the village itself, Chakvi.

👑 Makhinjauri: a countess's villa, not a Romanov palace

Here is the main confusion, and it is worth clearing up at once.

The building at Makhinjauri that everyone calls the Romanov palace is officially Countess Maria Fesenko's villa, and in the Soviet period it was the Makhinjauri children's home.

By widely repeated accounts, the three-storey house was built by Nicholas II for his governess. Construction started in 1907.

Its history is a hard one. The countess was killed, the house was looted, and the Bolsheviks opened a kindergarten in the building. A local account holds that her grave was deliberately left unmarked, so that the body would not be dug up.

In 2013 the building was listed as a cultural heritage monument, and in 2019 a restoration was announced with a completed 3D design.

On the resort, Makhinjauri and a fuller account with the beach and facilities.

🏔️ Abastumani: three palaces of a grand duke

An entirely different part of the country: Samtskhe-Javakheti, Adigeni Municipality.

Three palaces were built here at the end of the nineteenth century for Grand Duke George Alexandrovich (1871-1899), son of Emperor Alexander III. Two of wood and one of stone, with their outbuildings.

All three stand on the bank of the Odzrkhe, in the upper part of the resort at the end of Paliashvili Street.

The stone palace is two storeys, with a markedly asymmetrical plan, triangular pediments, wooden balconies on two levels and a tower-like volume under a steep roof.

George Alexandrovich came to Abastumani to be treated for tuberculosis and spent his last years here. The famous observatory is connected with him: know the passion of Tsarevich Romanov.

On the resort itself, Abastumani.

🏰 Likani: the only one with something to see inside

Near Borjomi, at Likani, stands a palace built between 1892 and 1895 to a design by the French architect Léon Benois.

It sits on the bank of the Mtkvari and served for many years as the summer residence of the Russian imperial family.

And it is the only one of the four where the furnishings survive. Inside are a table given to the Romanovs by Napoleon, an armchair from the Shah of Iran, and a table made by Peter the Great himself from walnut roots. Almost every object is an antique, and the billiard table from the Romanov period is still in working order.

On the place, Likani and the Church of the Holy Virgin Mary at Likani.

🚗 Getting to Chakvi

The village lies on the coast between Batumi and Kobuleti, about fifteen kilometres from Batumi.

From Batumi, marshrutkas run regularly and take about half an hour. There is also a local train.

From Kobuleti, some twenty minutes in the other direction.

Chakvi falls on the route of almost any journey along this coast: the Batumi Botanical Garden is here, and further on lie Tsikhisdziri and Petra fortress.

🧭 What is near Chakvi

The Batumi Botanical Garden, one of the largest in the post-Soviet space, a few minutes away.

Tsikhisdziri with Petra fortress, further along the coast towards Kobuleti.

Mtirala National Park, if you want to leave the sea for the mountains.

🗣️ Over to you

Have you visited any of the Romanov residences in Georgia? Tell us which ones and what state they were in. Leave a review on Madloba: the sites are scattered across the country and preserved to very different degrees, so recent observations are especially useful.

Information is current as of August 2026. The condition of the buildings and access arrangements change, and some sites are under restoration; check locally.