A Luxury Hotel That Used To Be A Refugee Camp

The Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel is centrally placed in Georgia’s capital. It was a good hotel in Soviet Georgia and a popular spot to stay with wonderful views of Tbilisi when it was built in 1967. Then, in the early 1990s, just after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, civil war erupted in Georgia.

Tbilisi was flooded with refugees from the territory of Abkhazia, where there were military clashes and unrest continued. When more than 200,000 refugees arrived in the city, the government faced the problem of accommodating them. Many buildings in Tbilisi, including the Iveria Hotel, were given over to accommodate refugees. Thousands of settlers huddled on the 22 floors of the hotel, which became their home for the next ten years.

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At that time, the building ceased to be a hotel, as its administration was unable to maintain hotel activities after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the associated collapse of the Georgian tourism industry.

The majestic Soviet building dominating the Tbilisi skyline was a pitiful sight: broken windows covered in cellophane, broken railings, rough plywood structures on the balconies, and a whole curtain of linen and old things.

It was only after the Rose Revolution in 2003 and the resignation of President Shevardnadze that the government began to seriously think about restoring the hotel. Residents were given $7,000 per room to check out of the hotel.

Now the restored hotel has 249 rooms, restaurants, bars and a conference center. In addition, the old rooftop pool has been removed and replaced by a spa and fitness center. The hotel reopened in 2009 as the Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel.