Stepantsminda

The settlement grew where the Tergi valley widens below Mount Kazbek, in the district of Khevi, whose Mokhevian people held the route through the mountains. Their duty was to guard the pass, and the ruined towers and hilltop shrines in the side valleys date from the centuries when raids came through the Dariali gorge, the narrow defile fortified in ancient times and known as the Caucasian Gates. Gergeti Trinity Church was built on the ridge above in the Middle Ages, far enough from the road to serve as a refuge in times of invasion.

The Russian Empire cut the Georgian Military Highway through the mountains in the first half of the nineteenth century, and the village became a staging post on it, with a post station where travellers changed horses. Pushkin, Lermontov and Alexandre Dumas all passed this way and wrote about the gorge and the mountain. The village was then called Stepantsminda, after a monk named Stephan, and in 1925 it was officially renamed Kazbegi, after the local family of that name whose best-known member was the writer Alexander Kazbegi, who came home from study in Tbilisi and Russia to work as a shepherd before writing stories of Khevi life.

Soviet rule brought a road, a museum and a population that lived from herding, the highway and the mineral springs of the district. The frontier closed and reopened as relations with Russia changed, and the nearby crossing at Dariali carries heavy lorry traffic when open. In 2006 the village recovered its original name of Stepantsminda, although both names remain in use. In recent decades walking, climbing and new hotels have reshaped its economy.

Khevi keeps a distinct mountain identity within Georgia. The Mokhevians speak a dialect of Georgian and preserve customs from before Christianity alongside their Orthodox faith: khati shrines on hills and rocks, sacred groves and sites tended by a khevisberi, an elder who leads prayers and sacrifices at community feasts. Some shrines are closed to women or to strangers, and villagers are quiet rather than secretive about them.

The year is marked by church feasts that double as community gatherings, with sheep and cattle slaughtered, beer brewed for the occasion and wrestling and horse racing in some villages. Guests are received with formality: a table is laid, a toastmaster leads, and the first toasts are for peace and for the dead. Refusal to eat or drink at all is taken as a slight, though moderation is understood.

The literary image of the region comes from Alexander Kazbegi, whose nineteenth- century stories about Khevi shepherds and clan honour are taught in Georgian schools, and from Russian Romantic writers who described the Dariali gorge as the edge of the known world. The mountain itself carries the older legend of Amirani, the hero chained to a Caucasian peak for defying the gods, a tale close to the Greek story of Prometheus. Traditional felt-making, woollen knitting and cheese-making continue in the households of the valley.

Rather more than a thousand people live in Stepantsminda, about half the population of the municipality, with the rest spread through its villages — Gergeti across the river, Sno, Achkhoti, Sioni and the scattered hamlets of the side valleys. It is the administrative centre of Kazbegi Municipality, with the school, clinic, police station and shops that the surrounding settlements rely on.

Livelihoods come from three sources: livestock, mainly sheep and cattle moved between valley pastures and high summer grazing; the highway, with its lorry traffic to and from the Russian border, its drivers, mechanics and cafés; and tourism, which has grown quickly, turning many houses into guesthouses and drawing seasonal workers from Tbilisi. The natural mineral springs of the district are a further local resource.

Life follows the seasons rather than the clock. Summer is short and busy, with haymaking, herding and a stream of visitors; winter is long, and snow can close roads for days, leaving the village on its own. Young people leave for Tbilisi for work and study, and the population is older than the national average. Electricity supply, the state of side roads, the pressure of new building on a small village and the unpredictable border trade are all everyday concerns.

Mountain food here is plain, warming and based on what the pastures give. Khinkali, the pleated dumplings of spiced meat and broth now eaten across Georgia, are credited to the mountain peoples of this region and are the dish most visitors eat; they are held by the knot, bitten at the side and drunk from. Meat is usually lamb or beef, stewed with potatoes and herbs or grilled as mtsvadi over wood.

Dairy is central. Sheep's and cow's milk cheeses, fresh and salted, appear at every meal, and are folded into khachapuri, into boiled dough with butter, and into mountain versions of khinkali and dumplings. Wild herbs, mushrooms and berries from the slopes are gathered in summer, and jams and pickles are made for the winter. Bread is baked at home or bought from the village bakery, and hot soups — bean lobio or a sour chikhirtma — appear at the end of a cold day.

Kakheti's wine reaches the village by lorry rather than growing here: this is too high for vines, and the local strong drink is chacha, a clear spirit distilled from grape pressings, poured at toasts. Home-brewed barley beer, ludi, has a long history in the Caucasus mountain districts and is still made for village feasts. Mineral water from springs in the region is drunk everywhere, and tea with mountain herbs is the ordinary drink of a guesthouse evening.