Art Palace (Museum of Cultural History)

A German prince built this palace for the love of a married Georgian woman — and the story is as cinematic as the building. At a ball in Kutaisi in 1882, Duke Constantine of Oldenburg, a relative of the Russian emperor, met Agrippina Japaridze, wife of Prince Dadiani; the scandalous romance ended with the couple settling in Tbilisi. In the 1880s–90s architect Paul Stern raised a residence for them unlike anything else in the city: pointed Gothic windows, Moorish arches, and lavish interiors by Aleksander Rogojski.

Since 1927 it has housed the State Museum of Theatre, Music, Film and Choreography — the "Art Palace" — founded by David Arsenishvili. The collection runs past 300,000 items:

• Set sketches, costumes and posters from Georgian theatre and early cinema
• Persian miniatures and portraits of the Qajar era
• Works by Léon Bakst and Konstantin Korovin, and an antique theatrical mask excavated at Vani

The building itself is the star exhibit — the state rooms survive almost untouched. The garden is quiet and shaded, and tourists are few, so you often get the whole museum to yourself.