It is located in western part of the country, in the Imereti Lowlands, at the confluence of the Rioni and Khanitskali rivers, some 17 km northwest of the town of Baghdati.

[2] Rhodopolis stood in a fertile and economically advantageous part of Lazica, on the road to its eastern neighbor, Iberia, but the location of the city in an open plain was militarily weak.

In 557, a force of 2,000 cavalrymen placed by the Eastern Roman general Justin under command of a Hun named Elminzur entered Rhodopolis unopposed as both the Persian garrison and locals were outside of the city walls.

Recorded history of Vardtsikhe is scarce until the 17th century, when the locale reemerges as a castle owned by the kings of Imereti, who had a summer residence there and enjoyed hunting in the neighboring Ajameti forest.

[6] As a conflict between Russia and Imereti was simmering in 1809, King Solomon II left his capital of Kutaisi, garrisoned by a Russian force, and entrenched himself at Vardtsikhe.

Early in the 1900s, the Ananovs, a family of entrepreneurs from Kutaisi, who owned an estate in Vardtsikhe, built a winery in the village and bottled a local brandy, which is still produced.

[9][10] The forested environs of Vartsikhe are parts of the Ajameti Managed Reserve, originally created in 1946 to preserve rare and relict Imeretian oak and zelkova trees.