Travel Guide Stépantsminda Khazbégui

It was called Kazbegi, and then it was renamed Stepantsminda. In the centre of Khevia, it is the most important city in the eastern part of the Great Caucasus. At 1,700 m above sea level, the city is dominated by the beautiful Tminda Sameda Church. It is situated in a grandiose site at the foot of Mount Kazbek (5,047 m). Khazbegui was in the 19th century a transit town for convoys between Vladikavkaz and Tbilisi. Stepantsminda has a good infrastructure for a stay. It is an excellent "base camp" for hikers and mountaineers eager to conquer high peaks. It is a very pleasant small mountain village. From there, one climbs a little to visit a small wonder, hanging on an eagle's nest, the church of Tsminda Sameba. Leaning against Mount Kazbek, this church, a masterpiece in the heart of a spectacular setting, is famous in all tourist circuits in Georgia. The great man of the city is the writer Alexander Khazbegui (1848-1893), a figurehead of a national socializing romanticism. The name of the town Khazbegui did not come from his name, but from that of his great-grandfather Kazibek Chopikashvili, a local notable. When the Mtiouletians rebelled against the Russians, they asked Kazibek to hand over the Russians of the town to them. He refused and was promoted to general by the Russians, who gave the city its name. It is a pro-Russian name in the face of the Georgian rebellion, and Saakashvili preferred to rename the city from its previous name, Stepantsminda.