Kutaisi State Historical Museum

The Kutaisi State Historical Museum is the largest historical museum in Georgia’s western Imereti region, and second only to the Simon Janashia Museum of Georgia in Tbilisi in terms of collection size. The museum is named after Niko Berdzenishvili, a respected academic, historian, and honored figure of the Georgian SSR. Berdzenishvili played a pivotal role in promoting the study of local history, founding archaeological and ethnographic societies, and publishing numerous scientific works. His significant contributions earned him multiple honors, including a state prize for co-authoring a history textbook with Simon Janashia. He is buried at the revered Mtatsminda Pantheon alongside Georgia’s most celebrated writers, scholars, and public figures.

The museum’s holdings exceed 190,000 artifacts, spanning ethnographic, archaeological, and numismatic collections, among others. Many of these pieces were excavated in and around Kutaisi, across other regions of Georgia, and even outside the country’s present-day borders, including modern-day Turkey and Russia. The oldest artifacts trace back to the Early Paleolithic period, and the collection also features items from the Bronze Age, Classical Antiquity, and the early Middle Ages. Exhibits include flint tools, clay, copper, and silver vessels, ceremonial objects, and intricate ornaments crafted from clay, metal, and semi-precious stones. The museum’s weaponry display and vast coin collection are of particular interest.

The archaeological collection provides insight into the Colchian culture of western Georgia. Visitors can view bronze figurines of animals and human-like deities, elaborately decorated axe heads, arrow tips, and rare coins such as a silver didrachm from the 5th century BCE and drachmas from the 4th–3rd centuries BCE.

The numismatic collection boasts over 10,000 coins from different historical eras. Besides the aforementioned Colchian currency, the museum houses coins from Antiquity, Late Antiquity, and the medieval period. Highlights include a gold stater of Alexander the Great, coins from Georgian kings George III and George V the Brilliant, and one featuring Queen Tamar, canonized as a saint. The collection also includes coins from the Roman Empire, Ancient Greece, Byzantium, Kievan Rus, the Arab Caliphate, and more.

The ethnographic department contains over 8,000 artifacts representing daily life, warfare, domestic utensils, weapons, furniture, traditional costumes, carpets, gold jewelry, and cutlery—dating from the medieval period to the 20th century.

Among the museum’s treasures are masterful examples of Georgian metalwork, including a 10th-century reliquary cross and a selection of 11th–12th century icons from ancient monasteries. The manuscript collection includes hundreds of religious and secular texts, original writings, and archives of Georgian public figures, as well as materials from the Monasteries of Motsameta and Gelati, and the Kutaisi Diocese. The museum’s library comprises around 40,000 volumes.

Housed in a two-story historical building at the corner of Tsereteli and Pushkin Streets, the museum itself is an architectural landmark from the second half of the 19th century. Some accounts suggest the building once belonged to Prince Nikoloz Eristavi, while others state it was intended as a branch of the National Bank of Georgia.

Founded in 1921, the museum initially stored its exhibits in the home of Grigol Gvelesiani and later in Kutaisi University. Its first director was Trifon Japaridze, and the museum opened to the public in 1922. A major renovation project began in 2005–2006, although some exhibition halls remain closed to this day.

Address: 18 Pushkin Street, Kutaisi
Opening Hours: Daily from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Ticket Prices:
Adults – 3 GEL
Students – 2 GEL
Schoolchildren – 1 GEL
Children under 6 – Free admission
Phone: +995 (0431) 24 56 91
Official Website: http://georgianmuseums.ge