4 days in Svaneti

Day 1.Drive from Tbilisi or Kutaisi to Mestia. Time at leisure in Mestia

Day 2. Mestia excursion. Visit The Cathedral of the village of Laghami of Transfiguration of Our Savior is a two level building with an exterior painting. The first level of the Cathedral is a small size basilica - of the Great-Martyr Holy Barbara (Barblash) - dated back to the 9the century. It retains the fragments of a fresco painting. The 2nd level was built on top of the first one later in XIII-XIV centuries. It has wall paintings. An outer wall of the Cathedral exposes a painting, the north facade depicts the "Banishment of Adam and Eve from the Paradise" and the east face illustrates the "Hunting of St. Eustaphios".

Visiting Ethnography Museum of Mestia, The museum was founded in 1936. It keeps unique archaeological and ethnographic material, a rich collection of ancient Georgian manuscripts.

After lunch drive to the villages Latali and Lenjeri. Visiting Matskhvari Church( XI - XII c) is built on top of the hill overlooking the highway. Matskhvari was painted in 1142. Besides traditional biblical scenes, one can find an interesting and unique fresco illustrating enthronization of Demetre I, the son of David IV the Builder. 300 meters up the slope there is a tiny Church of Jgrag. The paintings in this little church are wonderful. One can see here the oldest among Georgian fresco images of "The Nativity". Its unique composition is not repeated in any later images of this theme.

The Our Savior Church of (Nesguni) offers an exterior fresco painting of the beginning of the 10th century to us. XIV century frescoes of Taringzeli church illustrate episodes mainly from the legend on Amirani.

Day3. Drive to the village of Ushguli, unique for it’s location. The village of Usguli, the highest settled place in Europe, and its all seven churches were embellished with a great number of engraved and painted icons and crosses as witnessed by the records made in the past century. The majority of these sanctuaries are now kept in Chazhashi Church of Our Savior; the rest is taken to the tower, near the church, which serves as a branch of the ethnographic museum of Mestia. The Ushguli Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary - Lamaria is a functional temple. Ushguli sigthtseeng. Return to Mestia.

Day 4. Walk up to Chalaadi glacier. This route takes us to the approaches of the Chatini peak, up to the tongue of the Chalaadi glacier. The slope on this route is not very steep and thus we do not need to discuss its hypsometric profile. Therefore, all tourists, even physically unprepared can easily surmount it and enjoy the wonderful view of the exquisite summit of Caucasus - Chatini.The total length of the trail is six kilometres, The trail can be walked in 5-6 hours.

From here Mount Chatini can be seen clearly, on the south face of which the Chalaadi glacier takes shape. Chatini's north face, which is known in mountain-climbing literature as Chatini's Rhombus, is considered the most difficult climb in the Caucasus. From here, we can see the Chalaadi ice pass and glacier drift which is the source of the Chalaadi River. Return to Mestia.

Day 5. Depart for Tbilisi

Note: Departure is possible on day 4, directly to Tbilisi.

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