Georgian Museums
Georgia has about 100 museums. In Tbilisi alone there are more than 20 of them. Tbilisi museums reflect millennium long history of Georgia gathered in different collections as ethnography, architecture, art, history and etc. The major museum of the country is the State Museum of Georgia named after Simon Dzhanashia transformed in 1919 from the Caucasian Museum (founded in 1852).
There you will see the largest collection of Georgian culture monuments: material culture objects whose age starts from the epoch of the lower Paleolith – tools, arrowheads and spears, utensils, ancient ornaments as well as handicrafts from different areas of Georgia, the collection of coins both from Georgia and the countries of the Near East. The Museum is divided into geological, biological, zoological sectors as well as the ones dedicated to contemporary history of Georgia.
The second largest museum is the State Museum of Fine Arts named after S.Amiranashvili. Its “golden fund” contains the richest collection of ancient Georgian artifacts (including well-known enamels of the Khakhul triptych and the central enamel icon of the Mother of God) along with Russian, Soviet, West European and Oriental art.
Worth visiting are:
- The National Picture Gallery;
- State Museum of Modern Fine Arts;
- State Museum of Folk and Applied Arts;
- Museum of Georgian Literature;
- Tbilisi Historical Museum named after I. Grishashvili;
- State Museum of Music,
- Theatre and Cinema;
- N.Pirosmani's State Memorial Museum;
- Open Air Museum of Ethnography exhibiting a collection of ancient Georgian dwellings and architecture.