Upper Fiagdon village

The village of Upper Fiagdon is the largest in the Kurtatinsky gorge. It is located in the most picturesque place of the gorge, where the mountain ranges diverge for several kilometers. Both in the village and in its surroundings there are many interesting sights, and the views of the surrounding mountains are impressive at any time of the year.  

Since the 13th century, the largest and most fortified village in the Kurtatinsky gorge has been Tsmiti. It was built after the defeat of the Alans in the fight against the Mongol-Tatar army of Jebe and Sudebey. The founder of the village was a military commander named Tsmiti, who served the last Alan king Os-Bagatar. 

The village of Tsmiti is located on a mountain slope, 2 kilometers above the Upper Fiagdon.  Ancient ancestral towers, fortress walls and the necropolis of Tsmiti have been preserved here. All this is a cultural monument of all-Russian level. 
A few centuries later, when the threat of invasions by the Mongol-Tatars and other enemies passed, the inhabitants began to move to the lowlands, where it is much easier to engage in agriculture and cattle breeding. So, at the foot of the Tsmiti, the village of Upper Fiagdon began to develop. 

The village of Upper Fiagdon should be considered as a starting point for traveling through other gorges of North Ossetia. Most of the other attractions, except Digoria Gorge and the Tsey Gorge, are available for day trips from Upper Fiagdon by car. There are many hotels and guest houses in the village. 

The watchtower of Kurt and Tag Brothers has been preserved in the Upper Fiagdon. In the past centuries, this tower protected the entrance to the Upper Fiagdon. Near it begins the road to the City of the Dead Dargavs, Karmadon gorge and Midagrabinsky waterfalls.  

In the Upper Fiagdon you can see a monument to Stalin, erected in 1950, during Stalin`s lifetime. Residents of the Upper Fiagdon decided not to remove it when all the monuments to Stalin were demolished in Russia during the reign of Nikita Khrushchev. Near the monument to Stalin there is a monument "Grieving horse". It is dedicated to the residents of the Kurtatinsky Gorge who died during the WWII.  

The monument to Lenin in the Upper Fiagdon is very modest – it is a stone pedestal with a slab where the word "Lenin" is written in paint. It is famous for the fact that it was installed in Fiagdon on the day of the Lenin`s death on January 21, 1923. This is the very first monument to Lenin in the world. After some time, monuments to Lenin began to be installed in all cities of the country. There were about 14 thousand of them in total. Such a number of monuments to one person in the world has not been installed anymore.