Houses were built in the 1930s and the first orphanage in the area was opened in 1926. Primarily children who had been left without parents following the August uprising of 1924 lived there. In the years that followed, famous writers and artists often visited the orphanage.
Soviet Period
During the Soviet period, all buildings in Kodjori were handed over to the municipal administration.
The blue building, often seen on social media, was one of the many holiday homes of the then Ministry of Interior and Security Council of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. It could only be accessed with a special pass. To the right of the blue building, in a two-storey house in the same courtyard, was the eight-room dacha belonging to Lavrentiy Beria himself. Beria was head of the KGB after the Second World War, People’s Commissar and then Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR under Stalin and First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union for a short period in 1953.
From the collapse of the USSR to the present
After the collapse of the USSR, a children’s camp was opened on the site.
In 2005, the entire lot was abandoned and one by one the buildings began to give way to the elements. Today, many of the dachas that populated Kodjori have been burnt or vandalised. The building for guests, security and staff has been completely dismantled, and other first-aid buildings have been razed to the ground.
The land was recently purchased by a private company for USD 800,000 and an elite tourist complex will be built on the site of Lavrentiy Beria’s former dacha.
Urbex location:
