Why go
Housed in a 19th-century former library on Tbilisi Street, this museum guards the most significant collection of Colchidian artifacts outside Tbilisi—gold jewelry from the legendary land of the Golden Fleece, unearthed at nearby Vani and Sairkhe. Its halls trace Imereti's distinct medieval kingdom, with royal regalia, Byzantine-influenced icons, and manuscripts that survived Ottoman incursions. Unlike grand national institutions, this regional museum preserves the specific gravity of western Georgia: Greek colonial encounter, slave-trade wealth, and Orthodox resilience. The building itself, with its neoclassical facade and courtyard garden, belonged to the noble Tsulukidze family before Soviet conversion. Worth the journey for the Vani gold alone—torcs, bracelets, and ritual vessels that rewrite assumptions about Black Sea sophistication.