5 / 5 - One review
How to get there
About 28 miles or 4 hours by jeep from Mestia
When to go
From April to October
Minimum stay
1 to 2 days
Ushguli (Georgia)
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Nicolas Landru
Practical information on Ushguli
Reviews of Ushguli
Ushguli is one of the most beautiful places in Georgia. This ancient Svan village, with its houses each containing defensive towers, is the highest inhabited village in Europe - if it's even actually in Europe. It is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with all of Upper Svaneti.
My suggestion:
Visit the Ethnographic Museum of Zhibiani, the penultimate hamlet. It will allow you to go inside a defensive tower and discover stunning medieval Svaneti icons.
My review
Late March The road from Mestia to Ushguli was long. I waited 5 days before being able to take it, because it was cut off by an avalanche. But what a reward it was to arrive in Ushguli! This is an unbelievable, incredible place! At the top of a valley perched in the Grand Caucasus, with Shkhara and its eternal snow as a backdrop, at an altitude of 7200 feet, was I on the human rooftop of Europe and Western Asia? The border isn't really clear, or doesn't even exist...
In the last two hamlets that make up the mountain community of Ushguli, a stone tower is adjacent to each house. In the Middle Ages, they served a defensive purpose, and since then it has been the Svans' duty to preserve them out of respect for the memory of ancestors. Grouped like mini castles over the Inguri River, they form a very photogenic scene.
The icing on the cake is Lamara Church, which stands above Tchvibiani, the last hamlet. This 9th century basilica, the last human achievement at Georgia's rooftop, reminds us that in the Middle Ages, Upper Svaneti was a major cultural and religious focal point...
©
Nicolas Landru
