ÅžavÅŸat

Template: Infobox city in Turkey / Maintenance / County

Şavşat (Georgian შავშეთი, Schawscheti ) is a city and the administrative center of the homonymous district ( Ilce ) in the province of Artvin in northeastern Turkey. The town has 6,666 inhabitants Şavşat and the county Şavşat 18,058 (as of 2009 ).

Location

Şavşat situated at an altitude of 1000 meters at the leading of Hopa on the eastern Black Sea coast to Kars highway, about halfway between Artvin and Ardahan in the west to the east. In the north the wooded and used as pasture Imerchewi Hill ( Turkish Imerhevi Deresi ) form the foothills of the north of the city rising up to 3167 meters Karçal Mountains ( Karçal Dağları ). The road runs through the valley of Berta Suyu, which is at its headwaters in the area of the city to Şavşat Deresi. He is a right tributary of Çoruh. South of the valley reach several peaks of the massif Yalnızçam - ups between 2500 and about 3000 meters.

The district lies to the east of the province of Artvin, it is bordered on the east by the province of Ardahan and on the northeast by the Autonomous Republic of Adjara in Georgia. Four kilometers west of central branches of the enthroned on a rocky peak in the middle of the valley medieval fortress of Şavşat from a side street to the north. It leads over the mountain villages Ciritdüzu and Veliköy to 25 km away Meseli Karagöl, a Ausflugssee in Karagöl - Sahara National Park, which is named after the local Saharan mountains. From Ciritdüzu can be reached in the village Cevizli in a northwesterly direction, the ruins of the former Georgian Cathedral Tbeti.

Cityscape

East of the fort the road leaves the river valley and leads to the north side slightly uphill to the compact city center, which is surrounded by dense coniferous forest -covered hills with. The bus station is located in the upper eastern entrance area under a new district with high rise apartments. Along the main road there are several simple hotels, numerous restaurants and shops. Characteristic are older houses with gable roofs, the gables are oriented to the street to the north up the slope to the side streets between the usual block. The design is reminiscent of the construction of a bar built with plate shuttering traditional houses in some villages in the area. The town in the middle of a largely agrarian surrounding countryside living from trading, significant industrial enterprises do not exist.

Fortress

The former Principality Schavscheti ( Turkish Şavşat ) within the Georgian kingdom Tao Klardschetien once extended over a much larger area than the present-day Turkish district. From the 9th century the princes of the Bagratides Dynasty ruled from the fortress Ardanuç temporarily over an area from the Black Sea to Erzurum in the south and today's Western Georgia in the East. In the 11th century the historian Sumbat Davitisdze reported in his "History of Bagratides " about the abbot ( archimandrite ) of Tbeti, Bishop Saba Mtbevari that near his monastery a castle and a tower was 1027/28 build. He called the castle Sveti ( " pillar "). It is possible that this fortress of Şavşat ( Şavşat Kalesi ) was meant. According Sumbat had in the aftermath Bishop Saba and some nobles from Schavscheti can defend the fortress against a Byzantine attack. The fort was the residence of the princes schavschetischen. Middle of the 16th century ended, the Ottomans, the Georgian government and closed the monasteries. The fort may have been inhabited until the early 19th century, probably resided in the end semi-autonomous Georgian local rulers ( Bey ).

The hill fort on all sides rocky and steep. A path leads up to the east side zigzag. The perimeter of the larger parts are still there, exactly follows the outer edge of the hilltop. The entrance is in the middle of the straight east wall, the west wall extends in a great arc. A single round tower at the southeast corner should probably serve as a last refuge. In the western area remains an inner wall are still preserved, which separated the outer court from the inner living area. The visible ruins could date from the 14th or 15th century.

Personalities

• Doğan Akhanlı (* 1957), writer