Now threatened by Bagrat, the dowager Queen Alda defected to the Byzantines and surrendered Anakopia to the emperor Romanos III who honored her son Demetre with the rank of magistros.

In 12th century, king David the Builder appointed the son of shah Shirvan Otagho as a viceroy of Abkhazia, who later became the founder of House of Shervashidze.

[3] The historian Yuri Voronov also conjectured that castle might have hosted the queen-regnant Tamar of Georgia during her stays in Abkhazia in the early 13th century.

[4] In the 1240s, Mongols divided Georgia into eight military-administrative sectors (Tumens), the territory of contemporary Abkhazia formed part of the duman administered by Tsotne Dadiani of Odishi.

During the civil war between the successors of Imeretian King David Narin — Constantine and Michael, Duke of Odishi, Giorgi I Dadiani, subjugated much of the duchy of Tskhumi and expanded his possessions up to Anakopia, while the Shervashidze entrenched in Abkhazia, from that time on Georgian monarchs were recognizing Tskhumi as a feudal domains of House of Dadiani.