Rustaveli Avenue

Tbilisi's grand 19th-century boulevard lined with theatres and institutions

Rustaveli Avenue is Tbilisi's central artery and its showcase boulevard, running about 1.5 kilometres from Freedom Square to Rose Revolution Square. It was laid out in the 19th century as part of the Russian imperial city plan and lined with neo-classical and eclectic buildings that house some of the city's most important institutions.

Walking the avenue from east to west, you pass the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre (an ornate Moorish-influenced building), the Parliament of Georgia, the Rustaveli Theatre (one of the most important stages in the country), the Museum of Fine Arts, and the National Library. The avenue is good for people-watching at any hour, and the street-level shops and cafes get livelier as you move toward the western end.

things to do sight Listed by A Little Adrift
A story
Rustaveli Avenue was called Golovin Street under the tsars, named for the Russian viceroy Evgeny Golovin. The current name honours Shota Rustaveli, the 12th-century Georgian poet whose epic *The Knight in the Panther's Skin* is the national poem — a work Georgians quote the way others quote Shakespeare, and can often recite from memory.

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