The Abkhaz State Museum is located in the center of the capital of Abkhazia in the city of Sukhum. It began to be created in the 1960s of the 19th century, and its official opening took place in May 1917.
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Over the long history of the museum, he managed to collect a huge amount. More than 100 thousand items are stored in its storerooms - these are made of ceramics, metal, fabric, written documents.
The museum funds contain monuments of history and culture not only of the Abkhaz people, but other peoples of the Caucasus, ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Byzantium, Sasanian Iran, documents of the Great October Revolution, materials telling about the participation of the Abkhaz people in the Great Patriotic War.
Many of the exhibited exhibits in the exposition have not only republican, but also world significance. These include: one of the oldest in the former Soviet Union, the famous Acheulean Yashtukh site; Mesolithic inventory of the Cold Grotto (a collection of bone harpoons), "Wand Chief" from the forearm of a cave bear.
Of outstanding importance are also the materials of the metal culture of the dolmen at the end of the 3rd millennium BC; hoards of axes of the Middle Bronze Age, as well as original highly artistic forms and decorations, weapons and tools of the Late Bronze Age; ornamented axes on a bronze handle, not found anywhere else in the Caucasus; ritual daggers, belt buckles and more.
The Sukhumi dolmen is the oldest burial structure. A stone dolmen is installed near the building of the Abkhaz State Museum. He was brought here from the village of Upper Esher. The dimensions of the dolmen are very significant, the weight of each plate is from 8 to 12 tons. The age of the dolmen is at least five thousand years.
The pride of the museum is the famous ancient Greek marble wall and a bust of local work of ancient times, raised from the bottom of the Sukhumi Bay; a cult aigret with a rider and a dog from the Late Bronze Age; an Assyrian bronze shield in the shape of a griffin (6th century BC); Greek helmet and shield of the 5th - 6th centuries. BC.
No less interesting and scientifically significant are the monuments of the natural history of Abkhazia. The fossilized skeletons of mackerel fish exhibited in the museum date back 50 million years. Of great scientific importance is the collection of fossil cave bears that lived 8-9 thousand years ago. These materials were found in caves with. Pskhu.
At the walls of the Abkhaz State Museum, an archaeologist and a Caucasian specialist are buried. Voronov was born on May 8, 1941. In 1991 he was elected to the Supreme Council of the Republic of Abkhazia. From March 1992 to December 1993, he headed the commission of the Supreme Council of the republic on human rights and interethnic relations. In 1993, Voronov was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Abkhazia, and in 1995 - Deputy Prime Minister. Voronov was killed in September 1995 in his apartment in Sukhum. Yuri Voronov is the author of more than 500 scientific publications, including 30 monographs.
In the small town of Sukhum, there is a literary house-museum of the world-famous poet Dmitry Gulia, the founder of Abkhaz literature. It was here that for many years, from 1912-1960, the brilliant writer lived.
This museum is easy to find, because it is located directly in the central part of Sukhum, on the street of the same name, not far from Freedom Square. Gulia created all his masterpieces in it, so it is very interesting to see the writer's study, where you can get acquainted with his photographs, books, manuscripts and personal belongings.
In 1974, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Abkhazian poet, the museum was opened.
If you decide to go to Sukhum, be sure to look for the memorial house-museum of Dmitry Gulia. You can visit it on weekdays from 10.00 to 17.00, as well as on weekends, if you agree with the manager in advance.
Coordinates: 43.00290500,41.01655500
Abkhaz State Museum
In the city of Sukhum, as early as the beginning of the 20th century, the opening of a real pearl of Abkhaz culture took place - the Museum of Local Lore, which eventually turned into the largest and most popular historical center.
Today, the State Museum can be called the most significant not only for the development of the Abkhaz culture, but also for many peoples of the Caucasus. It has several departments - natural history, ancient history and the Middle Ages, ethnography, modern history, as well as a depository. Among the 170 thousand exhibits here you can find exclusive items - fossilized skeletons of various types of fish, which are already more than 50 million years old. Many original works can also be found in the museum's branches in the city; they are owned by the New Athos Cathedral Museum and the local art gallery.
The growth of visitors to the State Museum is growing from year to year, because this is a very educational place for anyone interested in the history and development of the Caucasus. Everyone can visit the museum daily - from 10 am to 3 pm, except Saturday and Sunday.
Coordinates: 43.00406700,41.02327100
Abkhaz State Museum.The Abkhaz State Museum was created in the 60s of the XIX century. Over the long history of the museum, he managed to collect a huge number of museum values. More than 100 thousand items are stored in its storerooms - these are unique items made of ceramics, metal, fabric, written documents, etc.
Today, the museum funds contain monuments of history and culture not only of the Abkhaz people, but other peoples of the Caucasus, ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Byzantium, Sasanian Iran, documents of the Great October Revolution, materials telling about the participation of the Abkhaz people in the Great Patriotic War.
The museum has a large number of interesting and unique exhibits and is one of the oldest scientific institutions in the republic. It has departments: nature, archeology, history of ancient and middle ages, ethnography, history of the modern period, funds.
In addition to the actual exhibits of the Abkhaz culture, the museum has quite a lot of cultural and historical values of other areas: ancient Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Rome, Byzantium, Iran. The most valuable items are things of the Iron Age of the end of the 3rd millennium BC, an ancient Greek marble wall raised from the bottom of the Sukhumi Bay, a cult aigret with a horseman and a dog of the Late Bronze Age, an Assyrian bronze shield of the 6th century. BC.
In the early 60s of the 19th century, lovers of the history and nature of Abkhazia had the idea to collect exhibits of cultural and historical value from the population and organize a museum in Sukhum. Before the start of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. the collected exhibits were taken out of the region and the museum ceased to exist. As a result, the most valuable numismatic, ethnographic, archaeological exhibits and materials of the natural history of Abkhazia were lost.
On the initiative of a group of agronomists, foresters and teachers, the creation of the museum in Sukhum was started again in 1913. A project was developed to create a "Society" to collect materials for the study of the region.
In the first half of 1915, a general meeting of members of the "Society of Lovers and Researchers of Nature and Population of the Sukhumi District" was held in Sukhum. The board included A. Sinitsin (chairman), B. Kiselev, V. Kozlov, V. Semashko, B. Zakharov, D. Grandolevsky, V. Kristalevsky and others.
Since the creation of the "Society", the organization of a museum of local lore began under it. The first years it was located in a small damp building owned by the District Office. In 1916, at the insistence of members of the "Society", the Sukhum city government allocated a subsidy of 500 rubles to the museum, which made it possible to rent a room suitable for the museum and open it to the public. The official opening of the museum took place on May 17, 1917.
At the end of 1920, during the reign of the Georgian Mensheviks in Abkhazia, the Society of Lovers and Researchers of Nature and the Population of the Sukhum District ceased to exist, and the museum closed with it. All collected exhibits were taken by the Mensheviks to Georgian museums.
After the establishment of Soviet power in Abkhazia, local history work was resumed under new conditions. In August 1922, the "Abkhaz Scientific Society" (ABNO) was formed in Sukhum, which elected a council and presidium on May 13, 1923. A year later, the museum moved to a new building, where it is now located.
In 1928, the museum was transferred to the system of the People's Commissariat of Education of the SSR of Abkhazia and received the status of the State Museum. Since 1946, the museum has been under the jurisdiction of the Department of Cultural and Educational Institutions under the Council of People's Commissars of the Abkhaz ASSR, and since 1953 - in the system of the Ministry of Culture of the Abkhaz ASSR.
In 1933, Iosif Adzinba was appointed director of the museum, who, despite the fact that he was not a historian, archaeologist or ethnographer by profession, paid much attention to collecting museum valuables. Under him, a historical and revolutionary department was opened in the museum.
In 1937-1938, when reprosessions swept across the country, documents related to the national liberation movement in Abkhazia and its ideological leaders E. Eshba, N. Lakoba, N. Akirtava, G. Atarbekov and others disappeared from the museum fund.
From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, museum staff began to collect documents, photographs, letters that clearly revealed the heroic struggle of soldiers from Abkhazia against the Nazi invaders.
Since the 1960s, the contacts of the museum with the Abkhaz Research Institute, other scientific institutions and leading museums in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Tbilisi and other cities have become closer.
In the middle of 1977, in honor of the 60th anniversary of October, in the Museum of Ethnography of the Peoples of the USSR in Leningrad, employees of the Abkhaz State Museum (Yu. Argun and E. Adzhindzhal) organized the exhibition “Abkhazians (everyday life and art)”, where more than 300 exhibits from collections of the Abkhaz State Museum.
At the end of 1978, by decision of the Board of the Ministry of Culture of the USSR, the Abkhaz State Museum was awarded the first category, and it was awarded a Diploma by the Ministry of Culture of the USSR and the Central Committee of the Trade Union of Cultural Workers.
As the museum grew, so did its structure. Until 1980, the museum had two branches (the Art Gallery from the city of Sukhum and the New Athos Panteleimon Cathedral in N. Athos), five exposition departments: nature, archeology, history of the 19th century, history of the Soviet period, ethnography, as well as departments of funds and scientific propaganda . Since 1980, new departments and sectors on the ancient sections of the history of Abkhazia have appeared at the museum.
In 1987, in connection with the seventieth anniversary of the Great October Revolution, by decision of the government, 2 more branches of the Abkhaz State Museum were organized in Abkhazia - the Yasochka memorial museum in the Gulrypsh region and an art gallery in the New Athos monastery complex.
Now the museum occupies a large building, which faces the square at the Philharmonic, and on the right flank - Leona Street. The square is part of the museum. Here is the grave of the artist Alexander Shervashidze, a dolmen from the village of Eshera and several stone exhibits. Entrance to the square is free, which allows you to see the famous dolmen without going to the museum.
In the building itself, the museum occupies several floors. Somewhere in the first rooms there is a very decent exposition of geology and archeology - prints of ancient plants, all sorts of bones and a very valuable set of bones of a cytoterium whale. Such whales once swam over the territory of Georgia, but there are bones only in the Sukhumi museum and in the Kutaisi museum (there is one, but a large one).
Further lies a lot of objects from the era of the Colchis kingdom - mainly the famous bronze axes. In Georgia, such axes are in every museum, and if Georgia does not fit into your plans, but you are still brought to Abkhazia, then take a look at them at least here. These axes are actually a symbol of Colchis culture.
Archeology continues with objects of antiquity - Greek amphoras and plates. A whole hall was allocated to this era, but this hall is strange. Its design was entrusted to a designer from Siberia, who thought of blocking all the shop windows with glass walls. Further, the museum has a rather rather big section of ethnography. They collected costumes, carpets, all sorts of things, and even made a model of an Abkhazian house.
Of course, the topic of the war with Georgia could not be avoided here. Under it is allocated a large room on the second floor. There are weapons, photographs and newspapers of those years. The exposition has some anti-Russian overtones - for the Abkhaz it is quite obvious that the army of the State Council fought for the interests of Yeltsin. This rather well-known fact in Russia exists at the level of theories, but in Abkhazia it is formulated straightforwardly: the exposition tells that the invasion of Abkhazia was planned directly at the headquarters of the Transcaucasian Military District. Tourists from Russia do not linger in this hall for a long time and do not read the texts, so the attack is usually not noticed.
The museum is located in Sukhum on Leon Avenue, just south of the Botanical Garden and one block west of the parliament building. In front of the museum building on the street there is an interesting monument of the early Bronze Age of Abkhazia, brought from the village of Eshera - a dolmen (megalithic structure of the 3rd millennium BC, the family tomb of the ancestors of the Abkhazians).
Opening hours: from 10:00 to 15:00.
Day off: Sat, Sun.
The Abkhaz State Museum is a historical and local history museum in Sukhum that has existed for over a hundred years. Here are exhibits that tell not only about the history of the Caucasus, but also about the history of Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, Byzantium, as well as the fate of Abkhazia in modern times. The museum is one of the most interesting sights in Sukhum and is definitely recommended to visit.
The museum building has several floors. Also, the museum complex includes a square, in which some stone monuments are located, for example, a dolmen from the village of Eshera, one of the most interesting exhibits of the museum. The museum includes several branches: the Yasochka museum in the Gulryshsky district (a region of Abkhazia a few tens of kilometers from Sukhum), the New Athos Panteleimon Cathedral and a gallery in New Athos, as well as the Art Gallery in Sukhum.
For the museum, it is important to constantly replenish its depository with new materials and values, so its employees are constantly collecting and processing new information and monuments.
Exposition and exhibitions in the Abkhazian Museum
The museum has more than one hundred thousand exhibits. Among them are not only household items, tools, pottery and jewelry, but also documents and written monuments. Paleontological finds and samples of minerals are also presented here. The museum has halls of different historical eras, as well as literary, ethnographic and natural science halls.
Ancient world history
Some exhibits are of world significance. It's not even that they illustrate the life of various peoples around the world. Many of them are very rare, even unique. These are, for example, items from the Yashtukh site, one of the oldest sites in the world.
Among other unusual exhibits from ancient history is a collection of bone harpoons from the Kodori Grotto (a cave in which traces of human existence were found about 30 thousand years ago), as well as the "Wand of the Chief", made by an ancient man from a bear's radius bone. In the halls dedicated to the Ancient World, other artifacts of the Mesolithic era are also presented. There is also an antique marble wall from Ancient Greece found at the bottom of the Sukhumi Bay and many other exhibits.
In the museum you can see stone and metal dolmens, which are more than five thousand years old. The Abkhaz State Museum is the only place in Transcaucasia where you can see dolmens live and, moreover, in such a variety.
natural world
In these halls, fossilized skeletons of ancient fish are exhibited, which millions of years ago swam over the territory of Abkhazia in the oceans. Some of the exhibits are up to 50 million years old. Also, the Abkhaz State Museum has a large collection dedicated to the cave bear, which lived on the territory of Abkhazia about 9 thousand years ago. In addition to all this, the halls feature a variety of stuffed animals.
Ethnographic section
This part of the Abkhaz State Museum tells about the life and life of the local peoples, about the national features of the Abkhaz and shows their household items, jewelry, dishes, tools, manufactured and used by them.
Stand "Old Views"
This stand presents New Athos and nearby territories of the time when the Russian Empire first became acquainted with the culture and history of Abkhazia, that is, the 19th century. Then the Russian authorities tried to attract attention and strength to the study of the monuments of Abkhazia.
Modern history
Since the Abkhaz State Museum began its existence at the beginning of the 20th century, documentation from the time of the Great October Revolution has been preserved here. Moreover, when Soviet power was established on the territory of Abkhazia, the museum resumed its local history work, and a scientific society was also formed. Based on this, one can understand that the museum's fund really contains many monuments of that era.
History of the Great Patriotic War
Naturally, such an event as the Great Patriotic War could not bypass the museum's exposition. From the very beginning of the war, its employees began to collect and process materials that tell about the course of the war and illustrate the struggle of the region against the invaders.
Square
The square at the Abkhaz State Museum is considered part of it. Here you can see the famous stone dolmen from the village of Eshera, as well as some other major monuments. The Abkhaz artist Alexander Shervashidze is also buried here. To get into the square itself, you do not need to purchase an entrance ticket to the museum, and you can see it absolutely free.
History of the Museum
During the popularization of Abkhazia and increased interest in it (1860s), some historians began to collect materials illustrating the local culture, history and nature. However, before the Russian-Turkish war, all the collected monuments were taken out of Abkhazia and subsequently partially lost. In 1913, the idea to create a museum appeared again. The collection of materials went on for several years, and on May 17, 1917, the museum was officially opened. Since then, the museum has stopped its activities and moved several times, because of which it also lost some of the exhibits. However, since 1989, the museum staff has been constantly organizing scientific expeditions to local areas and thus replenished the museum fund with unique finds.
Opening hours of the Abkhaz State Museum and prices in 2020
The Abkhaz State Museum is open on weekdays from 10:00 to 15:00, and the cost of an entrance ticket to the exposition will be only 100 rubles. For photography and video filming, you do not need to purchase additional tickets or permits, this opportunity is free in the museum.
How to get to the Abkhaz State Museum in Sukhum
The Abkhaz State Museum is located in the center of Sukhum, so it can be reached on foot along Leon Avenue from attractions such as the Botanical Garden, the embankment and the Park. Lenin. If you want to get to the museum by transport, take any minibus that goes to the Philharmonic stop. You can also get here by taxi using one of the local services.
Museum features
The Abkhaz State Museum, founded back in the 60s of the XIX century, has two branches in the Gulripsh and Gudauta regions in Abkhazia. The collection of the museum was originally created by lovers of nature and antiquity, the local population gave away various valuable numismatic, archaeological and ethnographic materials that became exhibits. It is worth noting that the first collection, taken out of Abkhazia during the Russian-Turkish war, was lost. The year 1913 was marked by the creation of the Sukhum Society by an initiative group that decided to study the history of the Sukhum Territory and collect interesting and ancient materials. In 1915, the first local history museum was formed in the "Society", which officially opened only 2 years later - in May 1917. It is worth noting that one of the most important areas in the work of the museum staff was the collection and search of not only the lost, but also the discovery and processing of various new exhibits, the collected materials were supposed to replenish the museum's collection and attract more visitors.
Historical exhibits located in the museum building
Despite the difficulties in finding materials with each year of the museum's existence, the collection has grown and increased all the time, today more than 100,000 interesting and unique exhibits can appear to the eyes of curious visitors from the museum's storage facilities. Guests can see materials from ancient Abkhazia, the Caucasian peoples and other ancient states, there are historical exhibits from Greece, Rome, Egypt, Byzantium. It is worth noting that many of the exhibits presented are priceless. The special pride of the museum is a unique tombstone called the Esher dolmen, it is exhibited in the center of the museum courtyard, next to a complex of residential buildings that were built to imitate the traditional living conditions of ordinary Abkhaz families. The halls of the museum can amaze with their diversity and splendor, there is an ancient Greek marble wall dating back to the ancient period, an ancient bust, a Greek shield and a helmet that have survived to this day, the date of creation of which is called 5-4 centuries BC, as well as an Assyrian bronze shield and many other valuable exhibits. The department of nature, in accordance with its theme, is equipped with a variety of exhibits of numerous paleontological finds, including fossilized skeletons of fish with an age of 50 million years, as well as samples of ancient flora and fauna. By visiting the museum, guests will be able to penetrate deeper into the history of Sukhum, get acquainted with its nature and all geographical and geological features.
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