On 28 June 1899, the Tsarevich and Heir Apparent, Grand Duke George Alexandrovich, third son of Alexander III and younger brother of Nicholas II, set out from Abastumani towards the Zekari Pass on a petrol-engined tricycle

On 28 June 1899, the Tsarevich and Heir Apparent, Grand Duke George Alexandrovich, third son of Alexander III and younger brother of Nicholas II, set out from Abastumani towards the Zekari Pass on a petrol-engined tricycle. He had been taking treatment here for tuberculosis for many years. The newspaper "Kavkaz" described what followed in detail, on the word of the sole witness, a Molokan woman named Anna Dasoeva, who was driving a cart along the same highway. A few minutes after passing her, the Tsarevich was returning the way he had come; he slowed down, climbed off the machine and lay down on the ground. Dasoeva supported him, laid him on his side with his head resting on a stone ledge, and ran to the river for water.

At 9.35 he died. No more than five minutes passed between the stopping of the machine and his death. The post-mortem the following day established a sudden rupture of a pulmonary vessel and a severe haemorrhage through the throat.

On the spot, stained with blood, a tent was first pitched and a guard posted. In July a requiem was served there, and in August and September 1899 the foundations of a chapel were laid. It was opened in September of the same year, that is, less than three months after his death. The chapel was of wood.

The wooden structure did not stand for long. Around 1900 it was dismantled, and a new chapel was built on the same site, known from pre-revolutionary postcards. In descriptions of the resort it is usually called marble, of Carrara marble, although the catalogue of lost churches gives the material as brick.

The second chapel stood for some three decades and was destroyed around 1935. Today a cross stands at the place where the Tsarevich died. George Alexandrovich's palace in Abastumani burned down in 2008, and of the imperial family's furnishings nothing remained there but photographs