Chronicle of Georgia Monument

The Chronicle of Georgia stands on a hill above the Tbilisi Reservoir, on the northern edge of the city. Zurab Tsereteli conceived the monument and began building it in 1985; the work dragged on for decades and was never brought to completion. Sixteen columns about thirty-five metres tall are set in two rows and covered with massive beams, which from a distance makes the structure look like a stone gate. The upper tier is taken up by figures of kings, queens and heroes of Georgian history, the lower one is given over to scenes from the life of Christ, cast in bronze and darkened with age. The reliefs read as one continuous band, and it is worth walking a full circle around the monument if only to make out the scenes. A long staircase leads up to the platform; columns with capitals in the classical manner stand at its foot, and a little to one side there is a small church of pale stone with a carved portal. From the upper platform there is a view of the reservoir and of the Gldani districts spread out below, and beyond them, in clear weather, a ridge of foothills can be made out. Because of the row of identical supports the place has long been nicknamed the Georgian Stonehenge, though the only thing they have in common is the silhouette.

On the map