GeorgiaOfficial tourism
Georgian National Museum

Where Georgia's soul lives in stone and gold

Georgian National Museum

Why go

The Georgian National Museum stands as the guardian of one of the world's most ancient continuous civilizations, housed in a stern 1910s Soviet-era building on Rustaveli Avenue. Its Treasury of Georgian Gold dazzles with Colchis-crafted jewelry from the 3rd millennium BCE—proof that Jason's golden fleece was no myth. The Soviet Occupation Hall confronts visitors with the raw archive of deportations and resistance, a necessary reckoning. From 1.8-million-year-old hominid skulls from Dmanisi (among the oldest outside Africa) to medieval icons and a 2nd-century Roman bath mosaic, this is not a museum of fragments but of an unbroken national narrative forged at the crossroads of empires.

On the ground See

  • The Treasury of Georgian Gold, displaying peerless Colchian metalwork including the 3rd-century BCE 'Pitsa' pectoral and ritual vessels that rewrote understanding of early Transcaucasian craftsmanship
  • The permanent Soviet Occupation exhibition, built from secret police archives and personal testimonies documenting the 1921-1991 occupation, including the execution lists of 1937-1938
  • The Dmanisi Hominid exhibition featuring skulls of Homo georgicus, the earliest known human ancestors outside Africa, discovered at the nearby medieval site in 1991

Practical Know before you go

Open Tuesday-Sunday 10:00-18:00, closed Mondays; tickets approximately 15-30 GEL depending on exhibitions; located at 3 Rustaveli Avenue, with signage in Georgian and English.

Last reviewed 25 August 2026 · reviewed quarterly