Pantheon (Tbilisi)

View from Tbilisi TV tower to St. David's Church with the Pantheon

The Pantheon in Tbilisi ( Georgian მთაწმინდის პანთეონი , Mtatsminda Pantheon ) is a cemetery on Mtatsminda . It is an official burial place of well-known poets and statesmen of Georgia .

history

The slope of Mtatsminda (1905):
in the middle the former funicular, to the right the church with the Pantheon

The cemetery is located on a steep slope near St. David's Church (Georgian Mama Davidi ). The domed church was built between 1855 and 1859 on the site of an old chapel that Saint David, venerated as a Christian missionary in Georgia, is said to have built in the 6th century. Below the church is a grotto in which the Russian diplomat and poet Alexander Griboyedov was buried in 1832. His Georgian wife had a bronze statue of a weeping woman erected on the grave site. The grotto designed by the Italian sculptor Campioni became a place of pilgrimage for Russian writers.

The funerals of the poets Ilia Tschavtschawadze in 1907 and Akaki Tsereteli in 1915 established the tradition of resting important Georgian personalities on Mtatsminda. Both were leading figures in the Georgian national movement. The cemetery has been a national cultural symbol ever since and is administered by the city of Tbilisi. The poet Galaktion Tabidze sang about it in the poem The Moon of Mtatsminda .

In 1929 the church and the cemetery were transformed into a pantheon on the 100th anniversary of Griboyedov's death. Since then, the state has determined who is suitable for a funeral. In addition to poets and thinkers, members of the Georgian nomenklatura were soon buried as heroes of the revolution . After 1990, various party functionaries were exhumed as "false heroes" and removed from the pantheon. Dissidents and victims of the Soviet era were rehabilitated and buried on the Pantheon in their place.

Until 2000 the cemetery could be reached by funicular from the Tschonkadse Kutscha (Eng. Tschonkadsestrasse ).

Grave sites

Grave of the first President of Georgia, Swiad Gamsachurdia

Grave of the Russian poet and diplomat Alexander Griboyedov

Tomb of Constantine Marjanishvili

Tomb of the writer Vascha-Pschawela

• Waso Abashidze , actor
• Weriko Andschaparidze, actress
• Nikolos Baratashvili , poet
• Wasil Barnowi, writer
• Simon Janaschia , historian
• Ketewan Geladze , mother of Stalin
• David Eristawi, playwright
• Swiad Gamsachurdia , first President of Georgia
• Alexander Griboyedov , Russian poet and diplomat
• Jacob Gogebashvili, writer
• Lado Gudiashvili , painter
• Merab Kostawa , dissident
• Giorgi Leonidse, poet
• Konstantin Marjanishvili, theater director
• Nikolos Muschelischwili , mathematician
• Iakob Nikoladze , sculptor
• Wascha-Pschawela , natural philosopher
• Dimitri Qipiani , civil servant
• Sergo Sakariadze, actor
• Galaktion Tabidze , poet
• Ekwtime Taqaishvili , historian and politician
• Wachtang Tschabukiani , dancer and choreographer
• Ilia Chavchavadze , poet
• Sachari Chichinadze, historian
• Kakuza Choloqashvili , partisan leader
• Ilia Wekua , mathematician
• Alexander von Zagareli , linguist
• Akaki Tsereteli , poet
• Grigol Tsereteli , classical philologist and Stalin victim

Picture gallery

The St. David's Church

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  Grave of the playwright
  David Eristawi

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  Grave of the writer Jacob Gogebashvili

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  Grave of the poet
  Galaktion Tabidze

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  Grave of the partisan leader Kakuza Choloqashvili

See also

• List of burial places of famous people

literature

• Thea Kvastiani, Vadim Spolanski, Andreas Sternfeld: Discovering Georgia. On the way between the Caucasus and the Black Sea . Trescher Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-928409-85-9
• Ulrich Bock: Georgia and Armenia . DuMont Reise Verlag, Cologne 1988, ISBN 3-7701-1464-7

Coordinates: 41 ° 41 ′ 45 ″  N , 44 ° 47 ′ 20 ″  E