The Aleksandre Chavchavadze House Museum in Tsinandali

A Time of Epochal Change

During the 19th century, Western ideals and values were coming into Georgia. Aleksandre Chavchavadze, a poet, translator, military figure, businessman, and founder of Georgian romanticism, played a key role in introducing European culture and education to Georgia, especially in the country’s east.

In the Chavchavadze Estate, you’ll be able to pick up on the refined taste and progressiveness of the Chavchavadze family at every turn. The Tsinandali palace was planned in the European style, and European landscapers designed the grounds as well. Numerous exotic plants grow over the twelve hectares of gardens.

Aleksandre Chavchavadze and his wife, Salome Orbeliani, were famous for their legendary hospitality. The palace was one of Georgia’s main cultural hotspots at the time. Salon nights would take place there, with talented poets and writers gathering together, listening to classical music and discussing events both local and international.

Foreigners often visited the Chavchavadzes’, including Alexandre Dumas père.

The Chavchavadzes’ life and the atmosphere of their salon nights will be brought to life before your eyes by the interior of the palace, the furniture, the first piano in Georgia, the first billiard table, the expansive library, the manuscripts, and more.

Aleksandre Chavchavadze is also notable for having brought European technologies to agriculture in the early 19th century, including processes for making brandy and wines. He was the first in Georgia to bottle Georgian wine in the European style.

In the historical wine cellar of Tsinandali there are more than 16,000 bottles of wine, with part of Aleksandre’s personal wine collection preserved there, including Saperavi from the 1841 vintage and many other unique Georgian and foreign wines. During your visit, you will be offered a tasting of the locally produced wine there.

These days, the palace museum is under private ownership, and the infrastructure of its historical wine cellar is an important part of the Tsinandali Radisson Collection Hotel.