UK’s Guardian Lists Best and Worst of Tbilisi
TBILISI – UK daily the Guardian on Monday published a list of the best and worst to be seen and experienced in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi.
Running the gamut of Tbilisi’s architectural and culinary peculiarities, the Guardian’s list included offbeat highlights such as a visit to the house of the personal physician of Georgian-born Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, the city’s one and only urban cowboy bard and some of its more unattractive landmarks.
The Latticed Home of a Tyrant's Physician
The 19th century wooden home of Vasil Gabashvili, who served as Stalin’s doctor, was given pride of place on the Guardian’s list as the city’s most impressive traditional home and leading Soviet relic.
Continuing with the Stalin theme, the Guardian noted that a nondescript apartment on a back alley near the newly renovated opera building houses Tbilisi’s most interesting museum – the former illegal printing house that a young Iosef Dzhugashvili (Stalin) used to print Bolshevist propaganda in the early 20th century.
In addition to the museum, the Guardian noted that one of the main draws of the unofficial exhibition is its curator, a hardline Communist named Soso, who is known for throwing out those who disagree with his political views and opinions on Stalin.
Country in the Republic of Georgia
Tbilisi is known for its performing arts. Visitors to the city are often astonished by the dramatic performances of Georgia’s national dance troupes.
Eschewing the predictable folkloric choices, the Guardian highlighted one Tbilisi’s most charismatic and unusual musicians – self-taught country singer Shota Adamashvili, a man who’s style and English accent sound as though he’s walked out of a Nashville honky tonk.
Questionable Architectural Designs
Former President Mikheil Saakashvili’s post-Rose Revolution government that came to power in 2003 left an indelible mark on Tbilisi’s landscape. As noted by the Guardian, Saakashvili’s questionable architectural taste threw all caution to the wind and left Tbilisi with a slew of much maligned – and often simply hideous – glass and steel modernist buildings, most of which were designed by Saakashvili’s favorite Italian architect Massimiliano Fuksas.
The article failed to note that with the change of government in 2012 came an equally ambitious patron in the form of eccentric billionaire oligarch and former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili. His equally questionable sense of aesthetic taste that manifested itself into USD 60 million hilltop palace – what one might call a futuristic Xanadu – has expanded to Ivanishvili’s vision for a new cityscape. His plans for a massive urban development project on a government protected piece of land led the Guardian to name Ivanishvili’s highly contentious goal the city’s biggest controversy and one of the main sources for a long-standing Tbilisi pastime – public protests.
Beer Takes Center-Stage
The Guardian also noted a cultural peculiarity that is often missed by most tourists – Georgians’ love of beer. Georgia is frequently mentioned as one of the birthplaces of viniculture, and its wines are deservedly famous. But as the Guardian noted, Georgians are just as quick to drink a refreshingly cold beer with dried or pickled fish as they are to sip a crisp vintage with cheese.
The full Guardian article can be found here.
By Nicholas Waller
Photo: Vladimer Shioshvili, Flickr