Şavşat

Şavşat lies in the wooded mountain country of Shavsheti, between the valleys of the Çoruh and the highlands towards Ardahan. Above the town stands the fortress of Satle, also known as Shavsheti Castle, a monument of Georgian architecture. The district belonged to the Georgian rulers of Tao-Klarjeti and later to the atabegs of Samtskhe. Following the Ottoman conquest, Shavsheti became a sanjak in 1578 and formed part of the province of Çıldır. Georgian and Turkish communities shared this mountain country, where older Georgian place names endured alongside later Turkish forms.