Day 71 Mestia to Ushguli Region
We left Mestia and heading to the Ushguli region. On the way we stopped at the Lovers Tower.Based on a legend of a young couple who eloped and built their own tower next to a river.The angry family killed the husband and the young wife spent the rest of her life in the tower alone.
Ushguli means “fearless heart” and relates to the fact that this region never had a ruler although many tried. Oddly enough though one of the key figures in Georgian history Queen Tamar, used this region as a holiday resort.She had both winter and summer residences here.
It is reputedly one of the highest inhabited settlements in Europe ranging in height from 2200 metres to 2600 metres.There are five villages in the region with the one we stayed in beingZhibiani .
Zhibiani is essentially the end of the line and as his typical with Georgian mountain villages it has towers, lots of them..There is proof of habitation here from the 6th century BC and some of the towers date from the 8th Century.Relics from the whole period of human habitation are held in one the major towers as a museum, which we visited.
We then headed to the hill behind the village where we found the beautiful little stone church at the monastery of Lamaria built in the 12th century. Lamaria was originally the name of a Svan goddess of fertility during pagan times. It changed with the coming of Christianity now has the meaning of St Mary in the Svan language.It was a beautiful little church with modern icons and fading frescoes and a lovely aura of gentleness and peace
After checking our bags in the guesthouse we headed out for lunch and a stroll around the village.Beautiful winding streets dominated by the towers.Heading slightly out and looking back one can see the mighty Mount Shkhara and its glaciers dominating the skyline-spectacular!.
