Silver icons
From the golden age.
Peter Ashton from Aylesbury, England — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Eka Samkharadze — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Unknown authorUnknown author — Public domain · U.S. Embassy Georgia — Public domain · U.S. Embassy Georgia — Public domain · ceja_andina — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Алла Лебедева — CC BY-SA 2.0
A museum in the centre of Mestia holding the treasures of Svaneti, whose mountain isolation protected it from invaders for centuries, so that rare icons and manuscripts from Georgia's golden age survived here. It was founded in 1936 and opened in its modern building in 2013, designed by the architect Gaga Kiknadze. Its greatest treasures are icons from the ninth to the fourteenth century in chased silver and painted wood, including icons of Christ, St George and the Crucifixion, richly decorated altar crosses, and ancient gospel manuscripts with ornate bindings, among them the Adishi and Labskaldi Gospels. Other halls show archaeological finds from Svaneti, medieval weapons and armour, silver and copper jewellery and vessels, and ethnographic pieces on traditional mountain life. The building's windows look out over the town and its towers. Tickets are about 20 GEL for foreign visitors per visitor guides, and the museum usually closes on Mondays; its halls are kept dim to protect the icons, and photography may be restricted. Allow one to two hours; it is the ideal start before wandering among the towers.
From the golden age.
Illuminated gospels.
Ethnographic displays.
Ioseliani Street, central Mestia
Because Svaneti's mountain isolation shielded its churches from invasions, preserving medieval icons and manuscripts that were lost elsewhere.
