Georgian National Museum

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Georgian National Museum

The Georgian National Museum on Rustaveli is honestly one of my favorite places. I actually visit a couple of times to see the newer exhibits, and even the older ones still keep my interest. One of the reasons I love this museum is because it's conveniently located near my home whenever I'm in Georgia,

On the fourth floor is the permanent exhibit of the

Soviet occupation of Georgia. I'll be honest, this exhibit

really gets me each time because they show real artifacts

and pictures of the numerous Georgians that were killed

or imprisoned during that time. Right at the entrance

opposite a wagon filled with bullet holes, there is an

incomplete list of the individuals killed by the Soviet

Union (and that's just the list of people that were well

known) behind a Soviet machine gun. There is also a big

image on the wall of numerous Georgian nobility hanging

out at a party, and the caption reads of how all of them

would end up being killed. Essentially there are numerous

photos of individuals and kids that were killed along the walls of the exhibit. The exhibit is also pretty cool because the walls go along in a timeline of occupation leading to Georgia's independence, and parallel the timeline pictures are actual doors from gulags.

The second floor also has temporary exhibits, which in

this case was prehistory and the skulls and artifacts of

humans and animals from all over the world during

ancient time periods. Even if an exhibit is temporary, it

will usually stay up for around one to two years, so you

will have time to visit any upcoming exhibits that may

interest you. The third floor then has artifacts found in

Georgia that are actually foreign. Most of the artifacts are

ancient Greek because Greece used to be our neighboring

country until the fall of Constantinople and everything.

It's a pretty cool exhibit, especially if you've taken an art

history class because you get to analyze the various bronze

works and the details that went into each one.

but it's also very accessible for everyone since it's on a major avenue of Tbilisi. Admission is very cheap at 7 lari for a grown adult, 1 lari for college students, and 50 tetri (Georgian cents) for retirees and school children. The first place to go in my opinion is the first floor to check out the Georgian jewelry. This exhibit is a permanent and it shows pretty jewelry of various kings and queens of old Georgia. This time when I visited there was an exhibit on old Georgian icons other religious relics such as the bible of one of the kings of Georgia, David the Builder.

The fourth floor also has another permanent exhibit parallel the Soviet Occupation exhibit of art from Asia, Egypt, and the Middle East. The exhibit admittedly is not that big, but it's still worth checking out because you can get really close to the various artifacts and art works which is pretty cool. Overall, I highly recommend checking out the Georgian National Museum because each exhibit is done really well, the staff is always nice and knowledgable, and it's a great way to learn a lot about Georgian history and history in general.