Museum of Mestia in Georgia, what to see in Svaneti, Svan Highland Museum

Mestia - the administrative center of the Zemo Svaneti region, is surrounded by mountains at an altitude of 1,500 meters. You can get here from the city of Zugdidi by a 145-kilometer road, which is laid between picturesque mountain ranges. For centuries, this single road leading to Svaneti was covered with snow from late November to mid-April, and the region was cut off from the outside world for several months. The hard–to-reach Svaneti served as a repository of the country's treasures - during the war years, church or secular jewels were brought here from different parts of Georgia. This is how magnificent icons, ancient manuscripts and other relics have come down to our days, which are currently located in local churches and in the historical and ethnographic museum of Svaneti.

The museum was founded in 1936. Unique archaeological and ethnographic exhibits are displayed in six halls of the permanent exhibition. It should be noted the Syrian bronze censers of the VI century, relics of the X-XI century and the oldest manuscripts made on parchments. There is also a silver Sassanid jug of the XII century, a Byzantine embroidered icon, a Venetian, so-called decorative cross of the XIII century, which is known as the "cross with stones" and other examples of Georgian, Syrian, Byzantine and European art. The pride of the museum is the richest collection of Georgian manuscripts. "Adish four-headed" is the oldest among the dated Gospels (897), "Jerusalem Canonar" (X century), "Mestia four-headed" (1033), other ancient editions of the New Testament: handwritten Labskald and Yenash Gospels with stamped covers, other stamped and picturesque examples of Georgian art. Of particular significance is the icon of Sidihan, in which a piece of the Golgotha cross is placed, and which for many centuries was kept in Zemo Svaneti ' in the village of Adishi.