Georgian National Museum

The Georgian National Museum was formed on 30 December 2004, as part of a structural, institutional and legal reform. It has been directed by David Lordkipanidze since it was formed.

The union takes in the Simon Janashia Museum of Georgia, the Art Museum of Georgia with its branches, the Open Air Museum of Ethnography, the Museum of the Soviet Occupation, the Museum of History of Tbilisi, the Samtskhe-Javakheti History Museum in Akhaltsikhe, the Dmanisi Museum Reserve of History and Archaeology, the Vani Museum Reserve of Archaeology, the Museum of History and Ethnography of Svaneti in Mestia, the Sighnaghi Museum, the Bolnisi Museum and the Institute of Palaeobiology.

The oldest part of the union is the Simon Janashia Museum of Georgia. It grew out of the museum of the Caucasian Department of the Russian Imperial Geographic Society, founded on 10 May 1852.

In 1865, on the initiative of the German explorer Gustav Radde, it became the Caucasian Museum. In 1919, after independence, it was renamed the Museum of Georgia, and in 1947 it was named after the historian Simon Janashia. In 2004 the museum came under the joint management of the National Museum.

The building on Rustaveli Avenue was designed in 1910 by Nikolay Severov, with elements of medieval Georgian decoration; it replaced an older building by A. Zaltsman.

The main exhibition of the Janashia museum is on Rustaveli Avenue. The exhibition halls are open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00, with the last visitors admitted at 17:30; the museum is closed on Mondays and on public holidays. Current ticket prices are on the museum's website.

The other museums of the union are in different towns, in Akhaltsikhe, Mestia, Vani, Dmanisi, Sighnaghi and Bolnisi, and each keeps its own timetable.