This museum contains a vast wealth of icons, crosses and jewellery from all over Georgia. Sadly, it can only be entered with a guide (English available, call ahead to book), and unless you're in a group the expense is significant. Many of Georgia’s most sacred objects are here, such as the little pectoral cross of Queen Tamar, set with four emeralds, five rubies and six pearls – the only known personal relic of the great 12th-century monarch.
Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Art
Tbilisi
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
11 MILES
This extraordinary (and for its time, enormous) building dates from the 11th century, early in the golden age of Georgian church architecture. It has an…
0.61 MILES
Dominating the Old Town skyline, Narikala dates right back to the 4th century, when it was a Persian citadel. Most of the walls were built in the 8th…
0.28 MILES
For most visitors the highlight here is the hall of wonderful canvases by Georgia’s best-known painter Pirosmani (Niko Pirosmanashvili, 1862–1918),…
0.49 MILES
Tbilisi's most exhilarating ride is its massively popular cable car, which swings from the south end of Rike Park high over the Mtkvari River and the Old…
10.51 MILES
Visible for kilometres around on its hilltop overlooking Mtskheta from the east, Jvari is, to many Georgians, the holiest of holies. It stands where King…
0.13 MILES
The major highlight of the impressive national museum is the basement Archaeological Treasury, displaying a wealth of pre-Christian gold, silver and…
0.58 MILES
The landmark Metekhi Church, and the 1960s equestrian statue of King Vakhtang Gorgasali beside it, occupy the strategic rocky outcrop above the Metekhi…
0.53 MILES
The ride up Mt Mtatsminda on the city's funicular is spectacular, as are the views from the top – and there are a couple of great places to eat or drink,…
Nearby Tbilisi attractions
0.11 MILES
This busy traffic nexus was Lenin Sq in Soviet times. Georgia’s last Lenin statue, toppled in 1990, stood where the golden St George (a gift to the city…
0.13 MILES
The major highlight of the impressive national museum is the basement Archaeological Treasury, displaying a wealth of pre-Christian gold, silver and…
0.23 MILES
The impressive high-arched Parliament building has seen many momentous events, including the deaths of 19 Georgian hunger strikers at the hands of Soviet…
0.24 MILES
Tbilisi’s oldest surviving church is perhaps its loveliest. Built by King Gorgasali’s son Dachi in the 6th century, it's a three-nave basilica whose…
5. Residence of the Catholicos-Patriarch
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Opposite the small and leafy park Erekle II moedani, high walls hide the residence of the Catholicos-Patriarch, head of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
0.24 MILES
One of old Tbilisi's most emblematic structures is also one of its newest, a higgledy-piggledy clock tower, built by puppet master Rezo Gabriadze during a…
0.25 MILES
The first church on this site is supposed to have been built in the 6th century by Davit Gareja, one of the ascetic ‘Syrian fathers’ who returned from the…
0.28 MILES
This gallery is Georgia's leading contemporary art space, nurturing local talent and giving shows to up-and-coming artists. Pop in to see what's currently…