workersunit 1
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workersunit 1 *
This striking heritage of Soviet architecture was found in the small city of Chiatura, located in the southern foothills of the Greater Caucasus, on the second day after we left Kutaisi.
Chiatura is Georgia’s oldest still-active mining town. What drew us here were rumours of its ageing cable car system — built to connect the mines directly with workers’ apartments, as well as for public transport — still in use today.
By the time we arrived, daylight was already fading. We parked our car in the valley and headed toward the most intriguing structure of all: a cyan-blue tower perched high on the steep mountainsides above the town’s eastern edge.
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After a six-minute ride from the newly modernised cable car station in the city centre, we found ourselves at the foot of the building. A group of people having a street barbecue on the scruffy patch of grass in front were already casting sidelong glances at us. Since the house didn’t even have an entry door, I took the opportunity to step inside. Naturally, since I don’t speak Georgian or Russian, I wasn’t too eager to cross anyone’s path here — how exactly was I supposed to explain what I was doing in their building? My dog-bitten friend, still suffering from the side effects of the rabies vaccine (immense butt pain and barely able to lift his legs), had to wait downstairs.
Up to the tenth floor, the building was inhabited — four flats on each level. Everything above was vacant. The staircase was pitch-black and crumbling. The elevator had long ceased operating.
