Models of old Tbilisi
Old houses and workshops in miniature.
Kober — CC0 · Mostafameraji — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Mostafameraji — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Mostafameraji — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Mostafameraji — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Tbilisi History Museum, named after the poet Ioseb Grishashvili and run by the Georgian National Museum, is housed in the Karvasla, a nineteenth-century caravanserai at 8 Sioni Street in the Old Town. Founded in 1910 as the city's municipal museum, it moved here in 1984; its 50,000-plus items span Tbilisi from the end of the fourth millennium BC to today. King Rostom of Kartli (r. 1633–1658) built a caravanserai on this spot beside Sioni Cathedral; its vaulted cellars survive. After Agha Mohammad Khan sacked Tbilisi in 1795, the Armenian merchant Gevork Artsruni rebuilt it in 1818 on three floors: storerooms below, shops in the middle, 33 guest rooms above. It traded until the 1920s, and its Art Nouveau front on Sioni Street dates from 1912. The architect Giga Batiashvili's restoration roofed the courtyard with a barrel vault, and the building has been a monument of national importance since 2009. Souvenir shops fill the ground floor. Upstairs, the permanent display evokes nineteenth-century Tbilisi with scale models of old houses and workshops, period furniture, pianos, gramophones, a horse-drawn carriage, costumes and old photographs. The collection also holds a fifth-century agate seal showing King Vakhtang Gorgasali. The top floor hosts temporary contemporary art shows, and the vaulted cellars house a separate wine museum. It stands about 45 m from Sioni Cathedral and 80 m from Shardeni Street in a straight line; the Bridge of Peace is some 240 m away and the Abanotubani baths about 450 m. Allow 60 to 90 minutes, then walk on to Anchiskhati Basilica, about 520 m north.
Old houses and workshops in miniature.
An 1818 merchants' inn on older cellars.
Temporary shows on the top floor.
8 Sioni Street, beside Sioni Cathedral, Old Town, Tbilisi
Sioni CathedralThe Cathedral of the Dormition, known as the Tbilisi Sioni, stands on Sioni Stre1 minute walk4.9
Shardeni StreetA small cobbled pedestrian street in the heart of Tbilisi's old town, named afte1 minute walk
Bridge of Peace and Rike ParkA bow-shaped pedestrian bridge of steel and glass spanning 150 metres across the3 minutes walk4.8
Metekhi ChurchA medieval stone church on the Metekhi Cliff above the left bank of the Mtkvari,4 minutes walk4.8
Narikala FortressAn ancient fortress crowning a steep hill above Tbilisi's Old Town and the Mtkva4 minutes walk4.8The pen name of Ioseb Mamulishvili (1889–1965), a Tbilisi-born poet and historian who wrote much of his verse about the city and joined the Georgian Academy of Sciences in 1946; the museum is named after him.
The Georgian National Museum lists Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00–18:00, with last entry at 17:30; it is closed on Mondays and public holidays, and children under 6 enter free.