# Svaneti Museum of History and Ethnography
- URL: https://explore-georgia.ge/en/places/svaneti-museum
- Type: place to visit
- Region: Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti
- Coordinates: 43.041056, 42.726417

The Svaneti Museum of History and Ethnography, also called the Mestia Historical and Ethnographic Museum, stands in the town of Mestia, forms part of the Georgian National Museum and is the principal museum of Upper Svaneti. It holds the material recovered by archaeological excavation in Svaneti, unique examples of Georgian chased metalwork and icon painting, the oldest manuscripts, arms and armour of the early and late Middle Ages, work in iron, silver and copper, jewellery, vessels and textiles, and ethnographic objects of old Svan life: archaeological, numismatic, art, manuscript and ethnographic collections.

The core of the museum is the treasure that the churches of Svaneti preserved for centuries in their secluded valleys: a tenth-century icon of the Saviour, icons of the first half of the eleventh century with the enthroned Christ and the St George icon of Asani, twelfth-century icons of the Forty Martyrs and the Crucifixion, painted icons of the Mother of God of the ninth and tenth centuries, and ritual objects such as processional fans of the ninth to fourteenth centuries. Of the manuscripts the most important is the Adishi Gospels, copied in 897, the oldest dated manuscript of the Georgian Gospels, with the Gospels of Labskaldi, Ienashi and Mestia of the eleventh to thirteenth centuries in chased covers.

## History

For centuries the churches of Svaneti kept treasures that in the lowlands were often lost to invasion, among them icons and manuscripts carried into Svaneti from other provinces for safekeeping. The first systematic record of this wealth was made in 1910 by Ekvtime Taqaishvili's archaeological expedition to Lechkhumi and Svaneti, whose material was published in Paris in 1937. The museum was founded in Mestia in 1936 on the basis of the antiquities of the church of St George of Seti and gradually gathered the treasures of the other churches and communities of Svaneti; in the Soviet period it was called the Svaneti Historical and Ethnographic Museum.

Since 2004 the museum has belonged to the union of the Georgian National Museum. On 1 July 2013, after two years of restoration, the museum reopened to visitors, and part of the collection, the chased icons and manuscripts, was conserved under the programme of the United States Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation. The museum is cited among the hundred most notable museums of the world.

## Visit info

The museum is in Mestia, about 700 metres from the central Seti Square; entry is charged. Mestia is reached by air from Tbilisi or by road from Zugdidi, 128 kilometres away.

## Tips

Give the hall of chased icons at least two hours; climbing afterwards to the churches of Svaneti that kept these icons for centuries is a different experience altogether. Mestia also has the house-museum of Mikheil Khergiani.

## Safety

Do not touch the icons or the cases. Mestia lies at 1,500 metres, so warm clothing is useful even in summer.

## Sources

- [Svaneti Historical and Ethnographic Museum — Georgian Wikipedia](https://ka.wikipedia.org/wiki/სვანეთის_ისტორიულ-ეთნოგრაფიული_მუზეუმი)
- [Mestia — Georgian Wikipedia](https://ka.wikipedia.org/wiki/მესტია)
- [Mestia — Georgian Encyclopaedia](https://georgianencyclopedia.ge/en/pdf-export/30990)
- [Svaneti History and Ethnography Museum — Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16375693)

## This page in other languages

- [ქართული](https://explore-georgia.ge/ka/adgilebi/svanetis-istoriisa-da-etnografiis-muzeumi)
- [Русский](https://explore-georgia.ge/ru/mesta/svanetskii-muzei-istorii-i-etnografii)