Explore Georgia's museams
Tbilisi museums
MUSEUM OF GEORGIA (GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM)
Located on Rustaveli Avenue, the National Museum of Georgia is the largest and most important museum in Tbilisi. It’s a must-see, especially if it’s your first time in Georgia.
Founded in 1852 as the Russian Royal Geographic Society’s Museum of the Caucasian Department, it has a long and turbulent history. In 1921, the collections were relocated to Batumi, then to Kutaisi, and eventually to France for safekeeping. After WWII, all objects were returned to Tbilisi and a new institution was established.
• Location: 3 Shota Rustaveli Avenue
• Opening hours: 10am-6pm Tuesday-Sunday (closed Mondays) .
THE NATIONAL GALLERY
Georgia’s National Gallery was established in 1920. Last year it underwent extensive renovations before reopening at the end of 2021.
The exhibition is now larger and comes with an optional audio guide. The exhibition is almost exclusively dedicated to four 20th-century Georgian painters: Niko Pirosmani, Irakli Parjiani, Lado Gudiashvili, and David Kakabadze.
• Location: 11 Shota Rustaveli Avenue
• Opening hours: 10am-6pm Tuesday-Sunday (closed Mondays)
ART PALACE OF GEORGIA
The Art Palace is located in historic Chugureti district inside a fabulous 19th-century Gothic mansion designed by German architect Paul Stern for Duke Constantin Oldenburg. The house itself is a work of art – many of the rooms are adorned with hand-painted frescoes and ornate fireplaces.
As the name suggests, this museum is dedicated to the arts, with exhibits on Georgian theatre, cinema, folklore, opera and ballet. The collection of 300,000 objects includes gorgeous costumes, movie props, sheet music, and original set sketches by my favourite Georgian artist, Petre Otskheli.
• Location: 6 Kargareteli Sreet
• Opening hours: 10.30am-6pm Tuesday-Sunday (closed Mondays)
TBILISI WINE MUSEUM
The setting is spectacular: The entire museum is underground, set in secret chambers and passageways underneath the old caravanserai. The tour starts with a gander at one of the last remaining private fresh water springs in the city.
• Location: 8 Sioni Street
• Opening hours: 12pm-8pm Tuesday-Sunday (closed Mondays)
UNDERGROUND PRINTING HOUSE MUSEUM (STALIN’S PRINTING PRESS)
A museum established here in the 1950s was abandoned in the 1990s. Today, there’s a slightly shabby display of communist kitsch alongside the original Augsburg printing machine, which sits forlornly under a bare lightbulb in the subterranean printing room.
Macabre as it may be, the illegal propaganda printing press famously established in Tbilisi by a young Joseph Stalin beneath a house in Avlabari district is an important piece of world history.The machine was smuggled into Tbilisi in 1903 by Stalin and his Bolshevik buddies and used to print off thousands of pamphlets in Georgian, Russian and Armenian. In 1906, the secret press was raided and the tunnels and underground chambers filled in.
• Location: Kaspi Street
• Opening hours: Weekdays
THE MUSEUM FOR HISTORY OF GEORGIAN MEDICINE
As the name suggests, the museum is devoted to the history of medicine in Georgia and was the first institution of its kind in the Soviet Union when it opened in 1963. The exhibition begins with the Kingdom of Colchis and Medea, who famously concocted potions from herbs and plants.
Two floors of objects and manuscripts touch on a range of different topics that relate to the history of the city and country, from Georgia’s 700 types of healing mineral waters and endemic herbs, to the science behind kisi treatments at the Tbilisi sulfur baths. The museum has two floors and lots of well-written English didactics to read. Allow a minimum of 1.5 hours for your visit.
• Location: 51 Dimitri Uznadze Street
• Opening hours: 11am-6pm Tuesday-Sunday (closed Mondays)
TBILISI AUTO MUSEUM
This quirky museum – the first of its kind in the Caucasus – was created in 2014 by Gia Mamulashvili, a private collector of antique automobiles. It’s since expanded to include 50-plus vintage and rare cars and motorcycles, all but one of which (a Ford) were manufactured in the former Soviet Union.
Impressively, every one of the cars has its original tires and is kept in good working order (some are even available to rent). There are elegant Volgas, cute Ladas and Moskvitches in every colour of the rainbow, ZIM-12s, a Soviet-era UAZ ambulance, and much more.
The history behind some of the vehicles is wild: The collection includes Beria’s old car, Eduard Shevardnadze’s car, an amphibious vehicle, and a special car manufactured for war veterans. The museum has two halls and takes around 20-40 minutes to tour.
• Location: Police Turn
• Opening hours: 11am-6pm Tuesday-Sunday (closed Mondays) – call ahead
THE MUSEUM OF REPRESSED WRITERS (NEW MUSEUM IN TBILISI)
Located inside the gorgeous Writers’ House of Georgia in Sololaki, the Museum of Repressed Writers is a brand new museum in Georgia that officially opened at the start of 2023. It remembers the victims of Soviet Terror and reflects on the regime’s attempts to ‘tame Georgian literature’.
When you visit this museum, you can also walk through the Davit Sarajishvili Memorial Museum, which explains a bit about the life of the brandy baron who built the Writers’ House as his private residence then donated it to the people.
TBILISI OPEN AIR MUSEUM OF ETHNOGRAPHY
Another classic, the Open Air Museum of Ethnography was established in 1966 by Georgian ethnographer Giorgi Chitaia. Outdoors, interactive, and aimed at showcasing Georgia’s diversity, it’s unique among museums in Georgia and a wonderful place to spend a spring or autumn afternoon.
The territory comprises 14 ethnographic zones, each with a traditional dwelling and an exhibition of tools, clothing and ceramics. When creating the museum, Chitaia painstakingly dismantled, relocated and rebuilt every house you see here now – including an Oda from Samegrelo and a Svan tower house.
• Location: Kus Tba Street
• Opening hours: 10am-6pm Tuesday-Sunday (closed Mondays)
GEORGIAN MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS (THE MFA)
MOMA Tbilisi, the small gallery on Rustaveli founded by Zurab Tsereteli (the sculptor who designed the Chronicle of Georgia monument among other public works). The eagle-embellished Georgian MFA opened its doors in 2018. Its collection spans some 3,500 works from the second half of the 20th century, representing 100 Georgian artists.
The didactics are wonderful, and you will recognise much of the subject matter – including the canvases of Old Tbilisi and bronze miniatures of famous sculptures. The cafe downstairs, The Museum, serves coffee and sweet pick-me-ups. The small gift shop sells postcards and print reproductions of key works in the collection plus silk scarves, pins, art books and other gifts.
• Location: 7 Shota Rustaveli Avenue
• Opening hours: 10am-6.30pm Tuesday-Sunday (closed Mondays)
THE ACADEMY OF ARTS MUSEUM
The Academy of Arts Museum is part of the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, one of the oldest high education institutions in Georgia. Most of the country’s top painters, sculptors and visual artists are among its alumni.
It is steeped in history, and the main building on Griboedov Street (behind Rustaveli Avenue) is certainly up there with the most opulent interiors in the city.
Designed in 1861 as a private residence for the merchant Vardan Astvatsatryan Arshakuni, the building features a collection of ‘Mirror Halls’ with incredibly intricate Qajar-style mirror work (crafted by Persian masters, no less), miniature paintings, stained glass and muqarnas plaster.
• Location: 22 Alexander Griboedov Street
• Opening hours: Approx. 11am-5.30pm Monday-Friday (closed weekends)
THE MUSEUM OF BOOKS
Part of the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia, the Museum of Books is a free museum where some of the institution’s 4,700,000 volumes are on display for public view. This includes the first book ever printed in Georgian language, and several beautifully illuminated volumes.
The museum is small, and unfortunately there is virtually no English signage, which does make it somewhat difficult to truly appreciate the collection.
But it’s still worth visiting to see the vestibule and stairway, which features cathedral ceilings, florid frescoes and ornamental woodwork.
• Location: 5 Lado Gudiashvili Street
• Opening hours: 10.30am-4pm Tuesday-Friday (closed weekends & Mondays)
N9 GALLERY
Art gallery, not a museum – but like the previous few entries on this list, it is well worth visiting if for no other reason than to see the heritage details in the interior. N9 Gallery is set inside a gorgeous apartment with painted ceilings and a splash of Iranian-style mirror work.
• Location: 10/9 Dimitri Uznadze Street
• Opening hours: 2pm-7pm Tuesday-Sunday (closed Mondays)
MUSEUM OF ILLUSIONS
The Museum of Illusion in Tbilisi brings you a space suitable both for social and entertaining tours into the world of illusions which has delighted all generations. It’s a perfect place for new experiences and fun with friends and family. Not only is it a place for children who adore coming, but also a place for parents, couples, grandmothers and grandfathers.
• Location: 10, Betlemi str., Tbilisi
• Opening hours: Everyday, except Monday, 16.00 – 22.00 – Saturday and Sunday 13.00 – 22.00
MUSEUM OF SELFIES
Museum of Selfies is a unique space in Tbilisi with interactive exhibits and modern design pavilions, where you can take impressive, funny, different photos to beautify your Instagram, Facebook, and other social networks. The museum is located on 600 square meters with 30 different themed pavilions and is designed for people of any age.
• Location: Kote Marjanishvili St.19
• Opening hours: 11:00 AM – 9:00 PM, Monday – closed
Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts
Museum of Fine Arts is located in a historic 1835 building designed by Swiss architect Giuseppe Bernardazzi. It is a very rare example of late classicism and has been an immovable monument since 2007.
The museum itself was founded in 1920 as an important treasury of cultural heritage. Today, it safeguards more than 140,000 objects. Popular exhibits include a collection of 152 paintings by the Georgian artist Niko Pirosmani, as well as works by Lucas Cranach, Jean Chardin, Mikhail Vrubel, and Ivan Aivazovsky.
TBILISI DIGITAL SPACE
Museum of Fine Arts is located in a historic 1835 building designed by Swiss architect Giuseppe Bernardazzi. It is a very rare example of late classicism and has been an immovable monument since 2007.
The museum itself was founded in 1920 as an important treasury of cultural heritage. Today, it safeguards more than 140,000 objects. Popular exhibits include a collection of 152 paintings by the Georgian artist Niko Pirosmani, as well as works by Lucas Cranach, Jean Chardin, Mikhail Vrubel, and Ivan Aivazovsky.
“Art in digital format” is a new word in both – technology and culture. In a short period of time, the innovative vision of art has been able to interest people of all ages and tastes.
The first digital art museum in Georgia was opened in 2019, and since then the space has received many visitors at various thematic exhibitions.
In the virtual world of the museum, the viewer expects four different spaces:
The main hall with Digital Exhibition
The Mirror Room
The Mirror Room
• Location: 16 Rustaveli Avenue
• Opening hours: Monday to Sunday – 11am – 9pm