Ilia Chavchavadze Literary-Memorial Museum of the Union of Tbilisi Municipal Museums went through the rehabilitation works in 2017-2018, while in 2019-2020 the Museum spaces, memorial rooms, exhibits, and different belongings characterizing the epoch went through the restoration and preservation process.
On 24 September 2021, the Museum was open for public.
Rehabilitation works were carried out within the framework of the sub-program of the museum development project “New Tbilisi” of the Tbilisi Development Fund of the Tbilisi City Hall.
Following works have been implemented in the historic building:
structural enhancement of the building;
rehabilitation facade decorations;
dismantle of the old roof and instalment of a new one;
enhancement of the inter-story roofing;
preparation of the internal spaces for restoration.
Rehabilitation works covered enhancement of electricity lines, instalments of heating, cooling and fire protection systems, different electric devices and lifts.
Aiming to enrich the funds of the Ilia Chavchavadze Literary-Memorial Museum, iconographic and documental materials as well as rarities have been purchased from the National Archives of Georgia.
Memorial room of Ilia Chavchavadze has been fully renewed and the authentic ceiling and floor have been restored. Arranging memorial spaces involved providing of an epoch-making context in the memorial halls of museum spaces and for this purpose, memorial and epoch-making items with information received through various epistolary heritages.There are various materials related to Ilia Chavchavadze’s life and work preserved at the Ilia Chavchavadze Literary-Memorial Museum, which include memorial items, personal archives, various editions of their works, as well as scientific papers, essays, monographs, photographic materials, pieces of fine art, etc.
In 1888-1901, Ilia Chavchavadze lived with his wife, Olgha Guramishvili in #7 Javakhishvili street in Tbilisi – a house of his sister, Elisabed Chavchavadze-Saghinashvili. This house is associated with Ilia’s active socio-political and creative life. At the same time, the house hosted the editorial office and printing house of the newspaper “Iveria” and Ilia’s traditional “Thursdays”. Number of national, state and cultural initiatives were generated here.
The mission of the Union of Tbilisi Municipal Museums is to establish a new role of museums in the modern society, which can be described as the unity of the preservation of the traditional museum activities and the educational aspect, in which the focus is on sharing knowledge for each individuals. Modern museums need to broaden their horizons and make along with the collection, make the visitors a priority.
