National Gallery (Blue Gallery)

Everyone knows Pirosmani from reproductions — here the originals hang side by side in a single hall. The National Gallery stands on Rustaveli Avenue at the edge of 9 April Park. The building went up in 1888 as the "Temple of Glory", a Russian military-history museum; in 1920 the painter Dimitri Shevardnadze opened Georgia's first national art gallery here, and locals still call it the Blue Gallery after its old facade colour. Since 2007 it has been part of the Georgian National Museum and was thoroughly renovated — the upper halls get natural light through glass ceilings.

Three names dominate the permanent display:

• Niko Pirosmani — "Actress Margarita", the lions, deer and feast scenes; the sheer size and black backgrounds of the originals surprise more than any print
• Lado Gudiashvili — phantasmagorical feasts and drifting female figures
• David Kakabadze — Imereti landscapes and 1920s avant-garde experiments

The fate of Shevardnadze himself, who saved much of this collection, belongs to the story too: he perished in Stalin's purges in 1937. The ground floor rotates temporary shows. An hour and a half covers it comfortably, and at midday, between tour groups, you often have the halls almost to yourself.