Why go
Chazhashi is the fortified heart of Upper Svaneti, a village where roughly 200 medieval defensive towers rise from a valley floor like weathered sentinels. Built between the 9th and 12th centuries, these stone structures served Svan clans as refuge during blood feuds and invasions—each family maintained its own tower, with living quarters below and battlements above. Unlike museum reconstructions, Chazhashi remains inhabited, its wooden balconies, carved window frames, and ancestral shrines (kashveti) still integral to daily life. The village forms the core of the UNESCO-listed Ushguli community, the highest permanently inhabited settlement in Europe. Here, Christian iconography blends with pagan symbols, and polyphonic singing echoes in stone chambers unchanged for a millennium. It rewards those who seek living architecture rather than preserved ruins.