The Museum of Georgian Folk Architecture

The Museum of Georgian Folk Architecture ( also known ad Giorgi Chitaia Open Air Museum of Ethnography) is an open-air museum in Tbilisi. It displays the examples of folk architecture and craftwork from different regions of Georgia. The museum is named after Giorgi Chitaia, a Georgian ethnographer, who established the museum in 1966. Since 2004, it has been a part of the Georgian National Museum.

Located in the open air it looks like a big village populated with houses, yards and manors from various ethnic regions of the country, such as Kakhetia, Svaneti, Mingrelia and others. Its collection covers more than a hundred items including some famous Svaneti towers. Each house reflects the architecture style typical to the particular area. The features of daily life of Georgian people is reflected inside the houses.

What You Can Find Here

The museum is located on the western side of Turtle Lake on a hill that overlooks the Vake district. The entire area covers 52 hectares of land and is arranged in eleven zones, holding over 70 buildings and more than 8,000 items. The exhibition hosts the traditional openwork wooden houses with gable roofs from western Georgia, fiat-roofed stone houses originationg from eastern Georgia, watchtowers from the mountainous districts of Khevsureti, and Svaneti, Megrelian, Pshavi and Imeretian wattle maize storages, Kakhetian wineries, and Kartlian water mills. It also preserves a collection of traditional household items including knitting-frames, chums, clothes, carpets, distaffs, pottery and furniture.