This postcard shows the village of Stepantsminda in northern Georgia, 165 km north of Tbilisi.
Archaeological discoveries show that people have lived here since ancient times.
In 1877, the famous “Kazbek Treasure” was found in the area — a collection of around 200 objects, including bronze figurines and rhytons, dating from the Achaemenid period ( VI-IV centuries BC).
The discovery provides evidence of an ancient settlement and a religious cult at the foot of Mount Kazbek.
In the XIV century, the Gergeti Trinity Church was built on a mountain terrace overlooking the settlement.
During times of invasion — for instance, during the Persian attacks on Tbilisi in the XVIII century—the country’s most important national and Christian relics, including the Cross of Saint Nino, were brought here for safekeeping in the remote, inaccessible mountains.
Alexander Pushkin dedicated his poem “The Monastery on Kazbek” to this place after seeing the church while traveling along the Georgian Military Highway.
The town later came to be known as Stepantsminda, a name that dates back to the XVIII century.
In Georgian, it means “Saint Stephen.”
The name is associated with a monk named Stephen who lived here and, according to tradition, saved the local inhabitants by warning them of an approaching landslide.