Upper Svaneti. Medieval mural painting

Upper Svaneti, a region of amazing beauty in the western Georgian highlands - grandly uprising peaks covered with the eternal snow, colourful Alpine valleys, roaring fierce rivers, villages scattered over the mountain slopes or sheltering in the depth of the river gorges, towers reaching the sky and small stone churches… From the time immemorial, Svaneti formed part of the Colchis Kingdom, later - of the Egrisi-Lazika Kingdom, while from the 8th c. it was turned into one of the eristavates (dominion) of the Apkhazeti-Western Georgian Kingdom. In the 11th-15th cc. Svaneti eristavate had preserved its significance in the political life of the country within the united Georgian Kingdom. From the 15th c., after the disintegration of the united Georgian Kingdom, Svaneti became an independent princedom, retaining traditional division into communities, which has come up to our days. This historic province is one of the significant centres of medieval Georgian culture. Over the centuries, it was an abode of the unceasing creative life - indigenous, marked with the clear-cut individuality, rooted in the local artistic traditions and, at the same time, closely linked with the general development of art in other regions of Georgia. It is an inseparable part of the greater unity of the Georgian art, leading its own tune in this harmonious polyphony. Such a combination of the common-Georgian traits and features characteristic of this region only contributes to the uniqueness, which marks any work of art created in Svaneti - be it secular and ecclesiastical architecture, metalwork, mural and icon painting or wood carving.