G. Leonidze State Museum of Literature

About us

The museum was opened in Tbilisi in 1930 due to the initiative of D. Arsenashvili, Georgian museologist, who also founded the Theatre Museum in Tbilisi and Andrei Rublev Museum in Moscow. The idea was supported by a group of young Georgian writers who took part of the literary association "Blue Horns" which was led by poet T. T.Tabidze. Initially, the museum was situated on the hill Mtatsminda, Tbilisi district and the home of many writers and poets of Georgia. This historical fact explains the original museum name – "The Museum of Mtatsminda's writes". In 1938 it was moved to new premises and the collection was greatly enriched with various literary documents dated from XIX- XX centuries that illustrated the history of Georgian literature. From 1967 the name was supplemented with the name of G. Leonidze, who was the one of the museum founders and its first director. Today museum occupies the former residence of the Governor of the Caucasus.

It possesses more than 157 thousand exhibits. The area of the museum is 2,324 square meters, of which 442 square meters are the showrooms. The centre of the collection consists of the manuscripts of the Georgian and foreign poets and writers as I. Chavchavadze, V. Pshavela, T. Tabidze, Boris Pasternak and others (about 130 thousand copies). The Photography Fund consists of 27 000 documents, a collection of paintings and drawings includes more than 2 000 items. Museum has more than 6 thousand visitors per year.

The museum keeps the canonical Gospels of XII century, philosophical and religious works of XVII-XVIII centuries, memoirs and manuscripts, rare audio and video recordings, furniture, clothing, family memorabilia of Georgian writers and poets.

The museum has not a permanent exhibition, but it regularly organizes temporary exhibitions, literary events and parties, showings of filming. In 2011 the museum arranged about 120 different events. Also museum is involved in publishing. One of their products is a literary almanac "The Chronicle of literature."