According to a number of scholars, Gagra is derived from Gakra meaning “walnut” in the Svan language, while Gakari or Kakari means “a place with walnut trees”.
The town was established as a Greek colony in the kingdom of Colchis, called Triglite.
In the 1st century BC it came under the control of Pontus – a Hellenistic kingdom established by one of Alexander the Great’s generals.
In 65 BC the city was conquered by the Romans.
After the empire permanently split into two, it became part of the Byzantine Empire until lost to the Ottomans in the XIV century.
Much of the city’s population fled, and foreign merchants were expelled by the new authorities – Gagra entered a period of decline.
It lasted until the end of the nineteenth century.
After visiting Gagra for the first time in 1897, the Duke of Oldenburg, a close relative of the reigning Romanov dynasty, conceives the idea of founding a resort.
On June 20th, 1901 the Imperial Treasury allocated 100,000 rubles for the construction of the “climatic station”, which would open in 1903.