Kote Marjanishvili Square

History of the Building 

This place was once called Kirkhe Square - the central square of New Tiflis settlement, populated by Swabian Germans in 1818 - 1941. An elegant, St. Peter and Paul Evangelical-Lutheran church was dominating the landscape.

The church was constructed in 1897, designed by architect Otto Simonson, but destroyed in the Soviet era, with residential buildings built opposite each other in 1947-48 as per the design of the architect Mikheil Melia.  

But first, the communist government forced the German prisoners of war to work on a construction site, dismantling the German church and erecting the aforementioned houses.  

The Architecture of the Building 

Both buildings are now distinguished examples of so-called ‘Stalin Empire Style" equipped with distinctive facades and conveniently-arranged large rooms with high ceilings, while grand staircases and elevators are found in the entrance hall of the building.

The Buildings Today

These buildings are residential today, and one has a memorial signboard on it, which informs passers-by that a German church once stood here.