Soul of the Old City

What to Expect

The Real Batumi
Our fascinating walk is not about the modern urban developments of the 21st century, such as Chacha Fountain, monuments to Neptune, Ali and Nino, the Alphabet Tower - you don't need a guide who knows the city well to see them. I will help you capture the atmosphere of the Batumi I grew up in and make you fall in love with this little seaside town.

During our journey, we will visit:

• St. Nicholas Church, founded thanks to Ilya Efremidi, who obtained permission from the Ottoman authorities to build it in 1865.
• The Catholic Church - a beautiful church originally built in 1903 by Batumi Catholics with the support of the Zubalashvili brothers, later converted to Orthodoxy in 1989. Today it is the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
• Alexandrovsky Garden, created by the efforts of German gardener Resler at the end of the 19th century around the amazing Nurigel Lake.
• Batumi Boulevard, laid out in the 1880s by French nobleman and gardener Mechislav Dalfons.
• The House with Atlantes or the house of merchant Nikolay Antonovich Sabaev on the former Mariinsky Prospect.
• The Rothschild House, where the Rothschilds did not live, but from 1909 to 1916, it was home to the military governor Colonel Boris Stepanovich Romanko-Romanovsky.
• Century-old trees on Dondukov-Korsakov Street, which saved the city in one of its historical periods.
• St. Barbara's Church on Smekalovskaya.
• Hotel 'Intourist Palace,' on the site of which stood the magnificent Military Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky from around 1906 for about 30 years.
• 1904 Synagogue
• Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church Surb Prkich, built and consecrated in 1900.
• Unique Batumi courtyards that are rapidly disappearing. In stories about cult structures, you will sense the city's multiculturalism.

Film Locations and Literary Fame of the City
Many artists and literary figures have left their mark in Batumi over the past century. Personalities such as Konstantin Paustovsky ('Throw Over to the South'), Anton Chekhov ('Green Grove,' 'Three Sisters'), Mikhail Bulgakov (play 'Batumi'), Osip Mandelstam ('Batumi'), Georges Simenon ('The Windows of the House Across'), have visited or worked in Batumi. Films by directors like Tengiz Abuladze ('Repentance'), Vladimir Menshov ('Love and Pigeons'), Stepan Puchinyan ('Madam Wong's Secrets'), and Leonid Gaidai ('Twelve Chairs') have also been shot here, and we will certainly see the filming locations.

I will tell you about Dr. Timoleon Triantafyllides and his contribution to Batumi's development. About Russian military engineer Dmitry Svishchevsky, who fell in love with our city at first sight. About the magnificent Dr. Diodot Haritidi and the wonderful actor and film director, our compatriot, Baadur Sokratovich Tsuladze, deeply in love with Batumi.