Ozurgeti is the capital of the western Georgian province of Guria. It was formerly known as Macharadze or Makharadze (named in honor of Filipp Makharadze). It is a regional center of tea and hazelnut processing.

The Shemokmedi monastery is a Georgian Orthodox monastery located at the village of Shemokmedi in Georgia's southwestern region of Guria. Founded in the 15th century, the Shemokmedi monastery functioned as a seat of a bishopric and burial ground of the Gurieli princely dynasty. It was a safe-house of church treasures and, over the centuries, had accumulated an extensive collection of various objects from other Georgian monasteries. Parts of the collection, which survived the 19th-century robbers, are now on display in Georgia's museums.