This past spring, one of my favorite day trips was to Chiatura, also spelled Čiatura, a small city that lies along the Kvirila River in a deep trench in the southern foothills of the Greater Caucasus range.
I joined the Georgia Expat Traveling Crew and found about this trip via their Facebook. Chiatura is the centre of one of the largest manganese-mining areas of the world. The ore, which was first discovered in 1849, has been exploited since 1879. The city and its ore-enriching plants cluster in the narrow valley, with the mines in the surrounding hills linked by cable railways and aerial carriers.
We began the trip by stopping to view the Katskhi Pillar Church. The Katskhi Pillar is a natural limestone monolith located at the village of Katskhi in the western Georgian region of Imereti. It's approximately 40 meters high, and overlooks the small river valley of Katskhura. The top of the pillar features a small church, that has been dated back to the 9th or 10th century. At the foot of the pillar is a smaller church, chapel and gift shop. The pillar itself was a great photo op, but few are allowed to climb the 'ladder' to the top...they say it takes 20 plus minutes.
Our next stop was the Tchiatura overlook station. The views were spectacular and the station itself was very windy. As we made our way down to the valley via car, we pulled over to observe a few old cable/mining car stations. We also made a few stray dog friends along the way.
We toured the Temur Maghradze Stadium, which opened in 1964. It's a semi-abandoned Soviet era sports stadium. The grandstands are well past their glory days, but the fields and adjacent gym are still in use. The bleachers could once hold 11,650 people and you can still see the VIP concrete boxes. Also if you want to stage a 90's-esque alternative album cover, this is your place.
Our final stop before our winery lunch was at an old logging mill/company. It looks abandoned, but there are still people working in this 'building'. It's a very open air concept and was a cool experience to walk through and hear stories from the locals.
The winery lunch was fantastic. We started it off by learning how to make Imeretian Khachapuri. Next we had a supra style lunch with a full wine tasting (and cha cha) to accompany our food. The winemaker deemed me the tamada of the group, which was fun for me...but bad for my peers. A tamada is a term for a Georgian toastmaster who introduces each toast and acts as a sort of dictator for the table. Basically when I drink, they drink. I did such a good job that the winemaker gifted me a bottle of cha cha, and then I proceeded to also buy wine.
Overall, it was a great day, and this area is definitely worth exploring. I would love to go back for another round.
Commenti