I had big expectations after discovering this Palace of Culture on the web. The only thing that bugged me was the fact that there were zero pictures to be found that were taken recently. This usually is a red flag, meaning the building is completely trashed or demolished. Without knowing what to expect me and my comrades traveled all the way to this remote village to find out. Sadly my gut feeling was right. The interior of the palace is completely gone. I'm not sure what happened to it but it seems everything has been stripped away. Leaving just the bare skeleton of the building behind. A sad sight. Nonetheless, I took some pictures since the outside architecture was pretty interesting.
Sadly I was unable to retrieve any history about the palace. But I assume it was built during the Soviet collectivization campaign at the beginning of the 20th-century. Throughout this period, the area was devoted to tea harvesting. Tea kolkhoz farms were built. This change resulted in more people settling in the area. Since the village also is connected to the coastal train line it became a logical spot to construct a new cultural place.
I'm curious until when the palace was still in use. At some point, it must've been unsafe to host cultural events because the state of the building was declining. Nonetheless, the people stayed. Until today, the area is still devoted to the harvesting of tea leaves.
After we were done capturing the palace we returned to our cars. After exiting the place we were surrounded by kids from the primary school that is located directly next to it. They were just out for their afternoon school break. And very curious about what we were doing in their village. A conversation was impossible due to the language barrier. But it certainly resulted in some funny moments.
