Tbilisi - in Avlabari part 1

Avlabari is the old Armenian quarter of Tbilisi. its name means "out of the walls" because it is located north of the Mtkvari river outside the old town. During the last decades the Armenian population decreased and the houses got bit by bit abandoned. During the last years larger housing areas were demolished to build the presidential palace and the the Sameba cathedral. Many houses in Avlabari are still in a bad shape. For example just walk from the Avlabari metro station to the Sameba Cathedral without using the Meskhishvili Street. The contrast between the cathedral and the surrounding streets is hard.

The song for the post is Hundreds - Our Past.

We start the exploration at the beautiful peace bridge. It seems that crossing it is a must have for freshly married couples. Every day there were many wedding parties shooting photos.

The bridge.

Looking from the bridge to the Metekhi church.

The walls below Avlabari.
 

The unfinished Music Theater and Exhibition Center,
the presidential palace and the Samebi cathedral.

A closeup.

"Under the bridge" ;-).

The wonderful Rike park.

Taking these stairs allow some nice views like this one.

Left is the Metekhi church, in the middle is the Narikala
fortress and the aerial tramway over the old town.

View to the skyscrapers around the Rustaveli avenue.
 

Look into the exhibition center.

Opposed to the entrance of the exhibition center is this spring.

 

The whole wall along the Baratishvili Rise is like a wide
spring with bryophytes - like a small nice oasis in the
concrete jungle.

In the middle of the wall are small stairs up to Avlabari.
The following image is very typical for Tbilisi: No matter how bad the streets and houses are, big and expensive cars are all around. Having a good car is obviously important for the people to show the status.

The car in the middle is an Infiniti. I have never seen Infiniti cars in
Germany but in Georgian they have a large market share.'

Typical street. One can see that the houses where a
bit larger than the houses in the Chughureti
neighborhood (see the previous post).

A big contrast: the presidential palace and the old houses.

The palace to the left and the Sameba cathedral.

Only about 100 m away from the palace you find houses like this one.

It is a bit shocking that people need to live in such houses. The Caucasus is plagued with earthquakes. To face the bitter reality - it is very probable that the people living here will be badly injured or even killed by the next earthquake.

The main attraction in Avlabari is the Sameba cathedral. This new church was build according to the architecture of old Georgian churches. It is together with the Svetitskhoveli cathedral in Mskheta the main church of the Georgian Orthodox Church. I don't have pictures from inside the cathedral because there was a church service and I respect that it is then not allowed to take pictures.

Inside the Sameba: the western wall with the entrance.

The clock tower.

The cathedral.

View from the cathedral.

The main door of the cathedral. It was closed.
A side door is used as normal entry.

The south side of the cathedral.

Some other chapels in the south east of the complex.

From the cathedral I went to the Sheraton hotel (which is currently the home of the German embassy) and then to the cliff over the Mtkvari.

In the K. Eristani street right below the cathedral.

 

View from the cliff to the old town.

A closeup of the cliff and the old part of Avlabari.

Another closeup - the Narikala fortress.

 

Below the point where I shot the photos is an abandoned
industrial hall with lots of these chimney-like structures
that have nice mosaics. If somebody know what this is please tell me.