Khoshtaria Palace in Sujuna - Italian Renaissance Architecture in Georgia

Khoshtaria Palace - History and Structure

The village of Sujuna is native to one of the first Georgian millionaires and philanthropists, the gardener-decorator and oil industrialist Akaki Khoshtaria. He had this palace built for his own mother, Vardiko Avaliani.

There are ten rooms in the building, which was built in an Italian Renaissance style, with the exterior decorated with ornaments and preserved to this day.

In the interior, history is preserved only on the ceiling, while the dining  hall is decorated with ornaments of wine, vines, grapes, and kantsi (drinking horn). Meanwhile, fittingly, there are images of musical instruments on the ceiling of the music room.

During the Soviet period, the Bolsheviks seized the palace and forced Khoshtaria to emigrate. At that time, the palace was also looted, and trees of a rare variety brought from Europe planted in the yard were also cut down. Now, in the courtyard of the palace, endemic species of plants thrive.

Akaki Khoshtaria died in Paris in 1932. He is one of three Georgians buried in Pere-Lachaise Cemetery, although today the gravestone of this great person is missing.

Since 2014, Khoshtaria Palace has carried the status of an Immovable Monument of Cultural Heritage.