Historical Facade of Gudiashvili Square Faces Threat

Mariam Khurtsidze

Tbilisi City Hall sells Gudiashvili Square for 15 million dollars. Information was cited in the website of Tbilisi City Hall without indicating the date of publication.

Alongside with this information, on the site of the architects of the company Zehner and Zehner sketches of renewed square of Gudiashvili appeared. The statement indicated that the classical original Georgian elements would be changed with exemplary design of facade which would be designed by rich ivies. Ultimately this idea will unite different steps of abstraction and different buildings, - read the statement.

After the sketches of Zehner were made public the City Hall gave explanation. Humanrights.ge presents the text:

“Our priority is to fully preserve the historical buildings and in general cultural heritage of urban area. Thus, the constructive strengthening and restoration of historical facades is planned. As for the contest announced for the right to research the investment environment of Gudiashvili square, we found out about this from social networks. This contest represents a private initiative and has nothing to do with Tbilisi City Hall. As we were explained, the contest has only conceptual and not architectural meaning. The request on the corresponding has not been proposed and discussed in Tbilisi City hall. As for the development of Gudiashvili square, there is a project on its rehabilitation. For visualization, please see the photo material of Gudiashvili square.”

According to Palitra.tv, citizens residing near Gudiashvili square have never heard about the reconstruction of the square or about the winner Austrian company. They state that the buildings built centuries ago must have historic appearance preserved.

Tbilisi Hamkar is against building of modern style constructions. The head of Hamkar journalist Aleko Elisashvili thinks that a sleek square of average quality cannot replace historic square: “This is outrageous. It is not admissible to built sleek square instead of historic one. We already wrote to Austrian company and to say truth, they are the only hope in this matter. Because they know the value of cultural heritage and hopefully they will consider our request.”

Before the public explanation of City Hall, a statement of head of Committee of Education and Culture of Parliament appeared:

“To all my friends who think that they have exclusive on the love of Tbilisi, I would like to tell that there is no project discussed and affirmed on reconstruction of Gudiashvili square. Nobody destroys Gudiashvili.”

The art critics were surprised by the photos published on the site of the architects. They are interested why the sketches of Gudiashvili square showed up in the foreign website and then what City Hall explanations mean.

Prepared According to Palitra.tv Reportage