Tbilisi: facades & balconies

  1. Fine forging on Aboviani Street.
  2. The famous Gudiashvili Square.
  3. Artist’s corner.
  4. Breathtaking staircases and mezzanines on Akhospireli Street. You can rent it, by the way.
  5. Migrant workers.
  6. Another work by Ceramic Room studio.
  7. On guard, sir!
  8. Italian surrealist Vesod tells the dramatic story of Medea and Jason.
  9. The experimental Liberty Theatre and the hotel of the same name. The former is praised, the latter not so much.
  10. The neo-futuristic, contextual Paragraph hotel across the street is more popular.
  11. Drinking fountains in the spirit of Soviet urbanism with traditional motifs near street booksellers.
  12. Three eras without gaps: imperial neo-Gothic (ballet school), late socialist realism (bas-relief) and post-Soviet contemporary (bank).
  13. Flower market on Orbeliani Square.
  14. Old and new Tbilisi on adjacent balconies. Because they can.
  15. Trinity Cathedral from a respectful distance.
  16. Lilacs on Sundukiani Street. The trash bag is part of the composition, nothing to complain about.
  17. Chavchanidze’s house in the spirit of Tiflis Art Nouveau. There’s also an interior mural with Mihály Zichy’s illustrations for “The Knight”.
  18. Shabby Tiflis eclecticism with Art Nouveau elements and an ironic “Tomorrow” (which will never come) on the wall.
  19. A riot of private construction in the courtyard of the Emergency Service. The state with the people, so to speak.
  20. Tbilisi’s 19th-century gallery buildings have their charm, but quickly deteriorate and often fall into disrepair (it’s easier to demolish than to restore).
  21. Gosha’s restoration.
  22. Monumental late-Soviet decorative plastic art on the facade of a former department store (now a shopping mall) on Agmashenebeli Avenue.
  23. The 2008 war heroes’ monument is criticised for its hellish location in the middle of a traffic circle. I took the pic from a bus, there’s no other way.
  24. Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in Russia for his anti-war stance, spent more than two years behind bars, released as part of a prisoner swap.
  25. The retro-futuristic Afisha hotel is designed to reflect the future as it was envisioned in the past.
  26. The Church of Mikhail of Tver is located directly beneath the cable car, which I recently wanted to take.
  27. The Mtatsminda-Rustaveli cable car station, in the spirit of freaked out pseudo-historical eclecticism with oriental motifs.
  28. The sun is rapidly setting behind the horizon, blurring the colours, but you already know everything here.
  29. The lower station is discreetly hidden behind the Academy of Sciences. From the facade on Rustaveli Avenue, nothing is visible at all.
  30. Good night, Tbilisi.