The politics of urban recovery in a Soviet-era spa resort town

Abstract

Chapter 7 The Politics of Urban Recovery in a Soviet-era Spa Resort Town: Heritage Tourism and Displaced Communities in Tskaltubo, Georgia Suzanne Harris-Brandts David Sichinava Introduction In February 2018, the Georgian Ministry of Culture proposed placing fourteen spa resort buildings in the small town of Tskaltubo on a national heritage protection list (Department of Cultural Heritage, 2018). Spanning the early decades of the 20 century Stalinist era (1928-1953), the buildings reflect a unique moment in the history of the town and are indicative of the spread of vacation culture around restorative health in the Soviet Union more broadly. After decades of physical deterioration and partial closure, the town’s historic bathhouses and hotels (called sanatoria, as shown in figures 1, 2, and 3), were again being positioned for tourism, recalling the town’s zenith as one of the most sought-after balneological destinations in the Soviet Union. Throughout the Soviet era, the landscape of the Caucasus mountains around the eastern Black Sea had been a particularly lively destination for restorative health (in Russian: otdykh). With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the tourist industry faltered, leaving behind thousands of unused guest rooms and resort facilities. In the Fall of 1992—less than a year and a half after the Soviet Union’s collapse—the sanatoria of Tskaltubo were again being filled with new inhabitants. This time, it was thousands