Soviet modernist architecture in Tbilisi and beyond: the Ministry of Highways, Chess Palace, Chronicle of Georgia and the sanatoria of Tskaltubo

Tbilisi‘s late-Soviet skyline has three unmistakable landmarks: the cantilevered Ministry of Highways building floating over Vake, the flying-saucer silhouette of the Chess Palace above Vera, and, on a hill over the Tbilisi Sea, Zurab Tsereteli’s towering Chronicle of Georgia. Further west, the spa town of Tskaltubo and the mining town of Chiatura add a harder, more complicated layer to the story — grand sanatoria built for Soviet workers, many still home to families displaced by war, and cable cars that still carry miners and shoppers over gorges on routes laid out in the 1950s.

All of this is visitable, and most of it is free or cheap to see from outside, but the sites differ sharply in condition, legal status and what it is appropriate to do once you arrive. This guide sets out the buildings and architects, what is open and what is not, how Tskaltubo’s sanatoria are being restored or left to decay, and the specific ethics of visiting a town where displaced people still live in the buildings tourists come to photograph. For the walking version of this story in the capital, see our Soviet Tbilisi architecture walk, and for Tskaltubo and Chiatura together, see our day trips from Kutaisi below.

The Ministry of Highways building: Tbilisi’s signature modernist icon

The former Ministry of Highway Construction, completed in 1975 to a design credited to architects George Chakhava and Zurab Jalaghania, is the building most often used to illustrate late-Soviet Georgian modernism in international press. Its stacked, cantilevered concrete blocks were engineered to minimise the footprint on the hillside below, an approach the architects explained at the time as leaving the forest largely undisturbed. The building now houses the headquarters of a Georgian bank, which restored and still maintains it; the exterior is visible from the street and from across the Vere ravine, but the interior is a working office and is not open for casual visits. Architectural tour operators and some press features occasionally arrange interior access; always ask in advance rather than attempting to enter unannounced.

The Chess Palace and other modernist landmarks

A short walk away in Vera, the Tbilisi Chess Palace and Gymnastics Palace (built in the early 1970s) housed the city’s chess school and gymnastics hall under one circular, drum-like roof; its exact design credits vary between sources, so confirm current attribution and protected status with the Ministry of Culture before citing it in print. The building functions today much as it always has, as a sports and chess training centre, and the exterior can be viewed and photographed from the surrounding streets.

Other landmarks worth combining on the same walk include the Wedding Palace (Tbilisi Palace of Rituals), designed by Victor Jorbenadze and completed in 1984, with its stacked, pierced concrete forms, and various mosaic-covered bus stops, sanatoria facades and apartment blocks scattered through the city’s Soviet-era districts. None of these buildings carry a single, universally agreed inventory of dates and credits online, and plaques are rare, so a licensed guide who can point to documented sources is the most reliable way to get names and years right on the ground.

The Chronicle of Georgia

Zurab Tsereteli’s Chronicle of Georgia, a row of sixteen bronze-and-stone pillars rising above the Tbilisi Sea reservoir, was begun in 1985 and has never been formally finished, which is itself part of the Soviet-to-post-Soviet story: funding and political backing for monumental public art evaporated with the USSR. The lower tiers show biblical scenes, the upper tiers show Georgian kings, queens and warriors in a style closer to Soviet-Georgian monumentalism than to the pure modernism of the Ministry of Highways or Chess Palace, but it is consistently grouped with them in guides to the period because of its scale, its date, and its complicated, unresolved status. The site is open, free, and reached by a steep path or a short taxi ride from central Tbilisi; there is no shade and little infrastructure, so bring water.

Tskaltubo: the spa town and its sanatoria

Tskaltubo, roughly ten kilometres from Kutaisi, grew into one of the Soviet Union’s grandest balneological resorts on the strength of its naturally warm, slightly radioactive mineral water, drawing workers, Red Army officers and reportedly Stalin himself to its purpose-built bathhouses from the 1930s onward. Most of the roughly twenty grand sanatoria and the central Bathhouse No. 6 that still stand today date from postwar reconstruction through the 1950s and 1960s, built in a mix of neoclassical and modernist styles with colonnaded entrances, murals, mosaics and large park grounds.

After the 1992 to 1993 war in Abkhazia, several sanatoria were repurposed as emergency housing for thousands of internally displaced families, a use that in many buildings has lasted more than three decades. The Georgian government, with international partners, has run a rehabilitation programme since the early 2020s that relocates remaining families into newly built apartments elsewhere in Tskaltubo and restores the vacated sanatoria for hotel and spa use; the pace and sequencing of this programme varies building by building, so check current status before planning a visit focused on any specific sanatorium. The BBC and other outlets have covered the town’s dual identity as both decaying heritage site and active home in detail.

• Buildings fully restored or under active restoration for hotel and spa use are generally accessible to paying guests and day visitors.
• Buildings still used as emergency housing are private homes, whatever their external grandeur, and should be treated accordingly.
• Several sanatoria stand empty and structurally unstable, with collapsed ceilings and unsafe floors; entering these without a guide experienced in the specific building is not advisable.

Our Gelati, Motsameta and Tskaltubo day trip from Kutaisi and our week-long Tskaltubo cure both route through the restored side of the town; if you want to see the Soviet architecture itself rather than take the waters, say so when booking.

Chiatura and its cable cars

Chiatura, a manganese-mining town in Imereti, is laced with a Soviet-built aerial ropeway system dating mostly from the 1950s, designed to move miners and ore up and down the steep gorge walls that otherwise made the town difficult to navigate on foot. Decades of underinvestment left many of the original cabins rusting and unsafe, and a well-publicised 2018 incident, in which passengers were stranded mid-air and had to be rescued, accelerated a renovation programme that has replaced several lines with new cabins and towers while keeping others as atmospheric, slightly nerve-wracking survivals of the original system. Some lines remain in daily use by residents rather than being run as a tourist attraction, so visitors should ride respectfully, pay any posted fare, and not hold up a car that locals are waiting to use for an actual commute. Our Chiatura and Katskhi Pillar day trip from Kutaisi combines the cable cars with the famous rock pillar monastery nearby.

The ethics of visiting places where displaced families live

Tskaltubo’s sanatoria sit at an uncomfortable intersection of architectural tourism and an unresolved humanitarian situation, and that calls for some specific restraint.

• Do not enter a sanatorium building that is clearly inhabited without an invitation; corridors, stairwells and courtyards that look abandoned from outside are often someone’s front hall.
• Ask before photographing people, their doorways or belongings, and accept a refusal without argument or payment offers.
• Avoid language in captions or conversation that reduces the town to “ruin porn”; the families living there are not part of an exhibit, and most would rather be rehoused than photographed.
• Use a local guide where possible, since guides based in Kutaisi and Tskaltubo can explain which buildings are open, which are private, and which are currently being vacated, and their fee supports the local economy rather than an outside tour operator alone.
• Follow news coverage of the rehousing programme before you go; conditions and access change as families are relocated and buildings reopen as hotels, and what was true a year ago may not be true today.

Practical summary

• Ministry of Highways building, Tbilisi: view the exterior from Chavchavadze Avenue or across the ravine; it is a working bank office, not a museum.
• Chess Palace, Tbilisi: active sports centre in Vera, exterior viewable any time; confirm architect credits with the Ministry of Culture before publishing them as fact.
• Chronicle of Georgia: open hilltop site above the Tbilisi Sea, free entry, steep approach, bring water.
• Tskaltubo: check which sanatoria are restored hotels, which are still housing displaced families, and which are structurally unsafe before planning a route; never enter inhabited buildings uninvited.
• Chiatura: ride the renovated and historic cable cars respectfully, and give priority to residents using them for daily transport.
• Book a licensed specialist guide for architecture-focused visits to get accurate names, dates and access rules on the day.

Sources

• UNESCO Georgia state party page
• Ministry of Highways Building (Tbilisi) – Soviet Modernism
• Tskaltubo Redevelopment Project for Displaced Families