Mestia: Georgia's mountain delight

During my weekend in Mestia, in Upper Svaneti in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia, with my work colleague and his family, we stayed at Nino Ratiani’s Guesthouse – the host was well-known to my work colleague.

The hearty traditional food is cooked in their kitchen and there’s plenty of it. We had bread, khachapuri, kubdari (bread with pork stuffing), home-cooked vegetarian pizza, kupati (pork sausage), chvishdari (baked bread made from corn flour mixed with cheese), potatoes, salads, vegetable soup, mixed vegetables, cheeses, yoghurt, honey, walnut cake, and berry jam.

Around Mestia are numerous small villages to visit, such as Lagami, Latali, Tskhumari, Becho, Etseri, Pari, and Ushguli. Within Mestia is the Museum of History and Ethnography, village churches, and the memorial house of Mikheil Khergiani founded in 1983. Khergiani was a famous Georgian mountaineer and rock climber who died tragically mountain climbing in Italy in 1969.

Around the town of Mestia and across the Svaneti Region are also tower settlements, dating from the Middle Ages. The towers, built of local stone and rock, stand 20-25 metres tall with four to seven floors connected by narrow wooden stairs. Visitors can enter a tower and walk up the steps to the top turret where there are small windows – and where residents can defend their property. Nowadays the Svans (people from Svaneti) use the towers for storage.

There are also many fortresses, which were used as protective living quarters as well as defending the town. Unlike the towers, fortresses are smaller (usually only three or four floors). The ground floor is used for dwelling and housing animals (such as sheep and cattle); the second floor is used for trade, but was often also used for dwelling; the third floor contained their bedrooms; and the fourth floor was used for defense. The narrow windows enable them to stick their rifles through the apertures, and of course they had an expansive view of the area.

Greek ethnographer Strabo said of the Svans: “they are noteworthy for their courage and power, they reign over almost everything around them and control the peaks of the Caucasus. In fact, it is said that Svaneti was never conquered.

On the return to Tbilisi by car – a 10 hour drive – it took 3.5 hours to Zugdidi, the worst part of the journey due to bad road conditions, road construction, rain, mud, and landsides. In Zugdidi, we stopped at The Host restaurant, next to the Turkish Doner Sabo café. The Host is the best place for food, coffee, and a bathroom stop.

Memories of the brief visit to Mestia were of the immense hospitality of the Svans, their warm smiles, the magnificent scenery, and their remarkable history.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).