Not every grand idea is a good one. Not even one with free liquor!
Take the Chacha Tower in Batumi, Georgia, for example, sitting abandoned in an area known as Miracle Park on the city’s Black Sea waterfront.
Just 10 years ago it was built by the city with the promise of chacha — a signature, powerfully alcoholic beverage in Georgia — flowing freely for the taking from all four fountains at the base of a clock tower.
Now that really would have been a miracle along the lines of Jesus turning water to wine. Never mind the time.
If you are not familiar with chacha, it’s a strong alcoholic distillation of the grape casings left over from the fermentation process of wine-making.
Rumor has it that chacha was the principal reason Georgians were the first people on earth to make wine eight thousand years ago.
Surprisingly, however, not everyone said gaumarjos (Georgian for “Cheers!”)to the idea and it fell by the wayside shortly after operations began.
According to Wikipedia, the 25-meter high tower was built in 2012 after the Batumi city council OKd spending a million Georgian lari for the project (about 324,000 USD at today’s exchange rate).
It was designed to replicate the Ottoman-style clock tower in İzmir, Turkey, built in 1901 and designed by French architect Raymond Pere.
From a distance, the tower appears impressive.
But the closer you get, you realize there’s little or no maintenance going on and not even the clock in the tower works.
It’s the odd failure on an otherwise brilliantly conceived waterfront cityscape.
The city’s tourism office is said to have occupied the building for a while.
But now it’s a prime waterfront graffiti target and seating for idle visitors and old men whiling away their days by the sea with memories of forgotten promise.