Ananuri commands a spur above the Aragvi river, on the road that has always carried traffic from the Georgian lowlands up into the high Caucasus. The complex belonged to the dukes who ruled this valley and who used the fortress to control passage, tribute and, repeatedly, the outcome of feuds with their neighbours. Inside a curtain wall reinforced by towers stand two churches and a tall square keep. The larger church is celebrated for the carving on its facades: an elaborate cross flanked by beasts and interlace, cut in relief with the confidence of a mature Georgian stone-carving tradition. Frescoes survive inside, darkened by fire and time. Since the damming of the Aragvi, the fortress has stood at the edge of a turquoise reservoir whose level rises and falls with the season, giving the ensemble a startling setting. The programme combines aerial photography of walls and water with close study of the carved stone, and situates Ananuri on a highway that is itself a historical document.
