It was garrisoned by a Qizilbash force left by the Iranian government to reinforce its authority in the area and protect the Turkic nomads transplanted into the Georgian lands.

The fortress overlooked a strategic locale, controlling roads to the Greater Caucasus mountains, inhabited by the bellicose Georgian highlanders of Tusheti, Pshavi, and Khevsureti.

In the ensuing battle, the entire Qizilbash force was annihilated and the rebels proceeded to capture another Iranian stronghold, that of Alaverdi.

These events are widely acclaimed in folk tradition which has preserved the names of the highlander heroes of the battle of Bakhtrioni such as the Tush Zezva Gaprindauli, the Khevsur Nadira Khosharauli, and the Pshav Gogolauri.

It also inspired the late 19th-century Georgian poet Vazha-Pshavela to write his patriotic epic poem Bakhtrioni (1892).