Georgia’s highland settlement of Mutso won the Europa Nostra Public Choice Award on the top of winning the European Heritage Award for Conservation of this year, as the project team collected the prizes at a formal ceremony in Paris on October 29. National project for Mutso rehabilitation, launched in 2014, was unveiled among winners of the Europa Nostra Award for Conservation in May 2019.
As the team from the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation of Georgia joined their colleagues from across the continent in the French capital for the European Cultural Heritage Summit, they brought the documentary introducing the story of the recent restoration of a village perched 1,900m above sea level in the north of Georgia. Dedicated to late Soso Bandzeladze, the author of the six-year-long restoration effort, the film was screened as the project received the Europa Nostra Award for conservation.
Village Mutso in the Khevsureti province of Georgia was the central link in this chain of fortifications and was one of the most impenetrable and well-defended fortresses in the Greater Caucasus. The village is spread over three semi-artificial terraces on a rocky mountain. A number of fortified-dwellings, varying between two and four stories high, several towers, defensive walls, a number of shrines and crypts have been preserved. Throughout the implementation of the project, the local population was consulted with and encouraged to contribute, from the planning and preparatory phases to the technical and maintenance works. The traditional technique of dry schist masonry, the local knowledge of which was almost completely lost, has been transmitted to locals by Kisti craftsmen from the neighboring region. As a result of this capacity-building, the future maintenance of the site has been ensured and the local community empowered to care for their own heritage.
The remoteness of the site and difficulty of the terrain is underlined by the extensive preparations that were required. These included the installation of a track and cable to transport materials up the mountain and the construction of a small hydroelectric power plant on a river near the village to provide electricity to the site.
The tiny village, perched on a mountaintop in the hilly terrain of the north-eastern Khevsureti province, was running for the honour among 27 sites and projects across Europe, from the Oratory of the Partal Palace in the Alhambra in Spain to the Digital Archive of the Roma in Germany. While the award is granted by Europa Nostra, a leading Europe-wide cultural heritage organization, winners are revealed by the public, with visitors of the awards website picking their three favorites from the selected entries.