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www.tourism.gov.ge The remote village of Ushguli in Svaneti (a UNESCO world heritage site), unique for its tower ensembles, is one of the most spectacular villages in Georgia and considered the highest settlement in Europe (2200m above see level).
It is a unique architectural ensemble, located in the stunning mountain scenery, at the bottom of Mt. Shkhara, representing the extraordinary unity of architecture and landscape. Ushguli has preserved numerous medieval towers typical of Georgian highland architecture, machubis and churches.
It stores valuable icons and samples of repousse art.
The heritage site is in upper Svaneti. The highest peaks of the Greater Caucasus tower at over 4000m, without a single ski-lift, luxury hotel or advertising hoarding to be seen.
What you’ll find instead is excitement, breath-taking views, pristine mountains, deep gorges, gushing rivers… and roads which are definitely not for the nervous driver!Svaneti is a landscape of high snow-capped peaks, forested hills and spectacular valleys. Winding roads lead to hidden villages dotted with mediaeval watchtowers. There is something about the region that makes you feel as if time has stood still. The people of Svaneti are a race apart - the pace of life is different there, they have their own language and traditions, their own architectural styles, and for them ancient customs are still very much a part of everyday life.
“To the natural beauties, the snowy peaks, the flowers and forests of the Svanetian landscape, man has added something. It is a land where every man’s house is his castle. The meadows and the cultivated valleys are strewn with high white towers. In one spot a single tower stands isolated, in another they cluster in groups of fifty to eighty” - Douglas W. Freshfield, The Exploration of the Caucasus, 1896. |
