The original fortress was likely built by the Greeks in the 6th century BCE, as, in addition to the remains of the Dioscurias colony at the bottom of the Sukhumi Bay, ruins of the southern fortress wall have been preserved.
In the I century BCE, the fortress was taken over by the Romans. In the late XIX century, this was confirmed by an archaeological find — a slab with an inscription bearing the name of Flavius Arrian, the emperor’s governor.
After the Romans, the fortress was seized by the Byzantines, who reinforced it in 565 CE.
Byzantium controlled the fortress until 736, when the Arabs invaded the region.
In 1724, the Ottoman architect Yusuf Agha designed and built a bastion fortress, Sukhumi-Kale, on the site of the former Byzantine fortifications.
It is known that by the late XVIII century, the fortress became the residence of the ruling prince of Abkhazia, Kelesh Chachba, who lived there until his death in 1808.
The fortress lost its military significance after the Russian-Turkish War of 1877–1878 and was used as a city prison until the early XX century.