Description of the attraction
The Marlinsky Tower is the oldest architectural monument in the city of Gagra. The fortification is located at the mouth of the Zhoekvara River, not far from the famous Abkhaz fortress Abaata. The tower was named after the Decembrist Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, who served in the garrison.
The structure was built in order to ensure the safety of the garrison located in the fortress from the endless raids of the warlike highlanders of the North-Western Caucasus. Therefore, the tower of Marlinsky was erected in a place where the highlanders could pass one ridge and go to another. By order of General Muravyov-Amursky, a forest was cut down within a radius of about two kilometers from the fortress, including in the Zhoekvary gorge, where the tower is located. The mountaineers' crossing was the only crossing point.
The Marlinsky Tower is a guard building. It was made in the form of a cylinder and was erected from stone boulders somewhere in the middle of the 19th century. It is interesting that the construction of this fortification was supervised by Lieutenant Colonel K. P. Danzas, whose famous Russian poet A. S. Pushkin had invited him several years earlier to be his second in a duel with Dantes.
To this day, the Marlinsky Tower located in the resort town of Gagra, unfortunately, has not been completely preserved. All that remains of it are picturesque ruins in the greenery of summer trees. The destruction of the tower a hundred years after its construction was facilitated by a severe flood that occurred in 1940. At present, the remains of the gray fortress wall are a fence that separates two private houses.
