Ambrolauri

Ambrolauri ამბროლაური
View of Ambrolauri in 2011
Flag Seal
Ambrolauri Location of Ambrolauri in Georgia
Coordinates: 42°31′18″N 43°08′54″E / 42.52167°N 43.14833°E / 42.52167; 43.14833
Country	Georgia
Mkhare	Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti
Area
• Total	1.6 km2 (0.6 sq mi)
Elevation	550 m (1,800 ft)
Population (2002)
• Total	2,047
Time zone	Georgian Time (UTC+4)
Post code	0400
Area code(s)	+995 439
Website	Ambrolauri City Hall

Ambrolauri (Georgian: ამბროლაური) is a city in Georgia, located in the western part of the country, on both banks of the Rioni river, at the elevation of 550 m above sea level. It is a self-governing city. At the same time, the city serves as the seat of the Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti regional administration and of the Ambrolauri Municipality. According to the 2014 census, the city had a population of 2,047. Its area is 1.6 km².

Ambrolauri is first recorded in the 17th century as a place, where one of the palaces of the kings of Imereti was located. It acquired the city status in 1966 and became a self-governing city with its own municipal government in 2014.

The territory of Ambrolauri has not been systematically studied archaeologically. The toponym Ambrolauri is known from the 17th century. The Russian diplomat Alexey Yevlev, who visited the Kingdom of Imereti in 1650, and then the Georgian scholar Prince Vakhushti, writing c. 1745, mention a royal castle at Ambrolauri, where the Krikhula River becomes a tributary of the Rioni. Only insignificant ruins of that palace have survived. The name of the city may have been derived from the surname Amarolisdze, while the settlement could have earlier been known as Metekhara, a toponym recorded in the 11th-century charter to the Nikortsminda Cathedral.

In 1769, the Imeretian king Solomon I granted Ambrolauri to a prince from the Machabeli family, Zurab, an in-law of the Tsulukidze, one of the leading families in Racha. An old three-storey tower built of stone and lime, located in the city, is still known to the locals as the Machabeli Tower. Ruins of a stone hall church are also found nearby. An inscription from the church doorway makes mention of King George III of Imereti (r. 1605–1639) and his family. A hoard of hundreds of coins buried early in the 17th century, including those with Arabic inscription stuck at Tbilisi and those issued in the name of George II of Imereti (r. 1565–1585), was unearthed in 1909.