Kutaisi State Historical Museum

The first collections of the Kutaisi Historical and Ethnographic Museum were located in the house of the museum manager, Grigol Gvelesiani, and were later transferred to the building of Kutaisi University . The first director was Trifon Japaridze.

The museum was founded in 1921 and was placed in a three-story building on the corner of Tsereteli and Pushkin streets, built in Kutaisi in 1894-1896 for the National Bank of Georgia ^[1] .

In 2005, the Golden Treasures hall was reconstructed, and since 2006, a full reconstruction of the building was commenced ^[2]; therefore, the total area open to tourists is 802 m², the exposition area is 365 m², the space for temporary exhibitions is 69 m², The storage area is 1840 m², the restoration room is 24 m², the museum shop is 25 m².

The museum publishes the monthly magazine Khidi (Most), as well as the Museum News newspaper. Also collections were published - “Kutaisi archeology”, “What museum exhibits say”, “Treasury of Gelati”, “Church treasury of Georgia”, “History of the production of chased dishes”, “Description of Kutaisi museum writings”, “Antiquarian materials from the Kutaisi museum And other publications.

The museum’s collections currently comprise 190,998 exhibits ^[3] , and the exhibition presents items from the Stone and Bronze Ages - the results of the work of archaeological expeditions practically throughout western Georgia, as well as significant collections of antiquity and the early Middle Ages.

The bronze sculpture of a man found near the village of Fersati is unique, a female bronze sculpture from Geguti. From the numismatic collection stands out the unique V century - the silver Colchian didrachma. Also presented Colchian drachma VI — III century BC. Oe., golden stater with the image of Alexander the Great, George III, Tamara, coins of George the Brilliant .

The museum treasury houses the chased works of the Middle Ages: silver stavrotek and a scribe (X century), images of Christmas and the Resurrection of Christ, lorphins XI (from Shlropan and Motsamet). The icon of Christ from Motsameta XI-XII centuries, objects of gold XVII-XVIII centuries. The manuscripts collection contains 800 books, mainly from western Georgia: the Gospel (early XI century), hagiographic collection of five volumes of John Xylophilionis translated into Georgian (XI century), translation by Equtima Atoneliseli of the eggegetic works of St. John Chrysostom, rewritten for the Katshi monastery by Gharomel Katelema Kareghiom K.

The museum houses 8 manuscripts of the "Vityaz in tiger skin" ; the manuscripts of Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani and the work of Vakhtang VI .

The museum holds personal archives and autographs of Kirill Lortkipanidze, Georgy Zdanovich , Alexander Garsevanishvili, Dmitry Nazarishvili, David Meskhi, Trifon Japaridze and others. The archives of Gelati and Motsameta monasteries, the office of the Kutaisi diocese, the Georgian gymnasium, the Kutaisi ethnographic society, the council of black stone producers of Chiatura and other archives are also preserved. The museum library contains over 40 thousand books.