Mestia Tower House
I visited the Ragliani Family Tower House.
Every community in the valley has a tower house. They were used when there was civil strife, enemy invasion or as protection against marauding bandits. They all all built to the same design. The lowest floor is for the farm animals. The next level is for the family to live in. Then there are four more small storerooms, accessed by steep ladders that can be pulled up to prevent access to the upper storeys. From the top level, there are openings looking down, three on each side from which the occupiers can cast down a shower of arrows on attackers.
A view of the family accommadation...
...more insides...
...a hole in the floor to access water from a spring...
...another view of the family space...
...looking out of one of the windows of the tower to the roof of the family space...
...a view of the other side of the tower looking down...
...and a view of the neighbouring towers.
I had lunch in a cafe overlooking the main square. Bred beef stew and some wine...but no vegetables except what few were included in the stew.
A picture of the back of one of the waiters' T-shirt, an outline of the country with the two black areas being Putin supported breakaway areas of Abkhasia and South Ossetia.
No comments:
Post a Comment