Cross the river and the city changes register. Chugureti was founded by German settlers, rebuilt by Soviet planners, and is now being renovated one facade at a time by people who do not agree about what it should become. This walk is for the traveller who has had enough of balconies and wants to see how a city actually accumulates — three hours on the side of the river the tour buses skip.
The route
- 01Marjanishvili Square — The hinge of the district: nineteenth-century blocks, a metro mouth, and the start of the restored avenue.
- 02Davit Aghmashenebeli Avenue — The pedestrianised stretch, rebuilt to look like 1900. We talk about what that restoration kept and what it quietly invented.
- 03The German colony streets — The original settler grid is still legible in the street pattern and a handful of surviving houses.
- 04Chugureti courtyards — Off the avenue, unrestored: shared galleries, added rooms, wiring like ivy. This is how most of the district actually lives.
- 05Station Square approach — Late-Soviet planning at full scale — the shift from street to slab, in the space of one block.
- 06The riverside back to the bridge — The last stretch, and the clearest view of how the two banks were built on completely different logic.
Included
- A private walk for your group — nobody else joins
- Context you cannot get from a plaque: who built what, and who is undoing it
- An honest verdict on which of the district's famous concrete is actually worth the detour
Not included
- Food, coffee and drinks
- Metro fare if we take one stop back
- Taxis
Who it's for
Good for repeat visitors, for architects and for anyone who finds an unrestored courtyard more interesting than a restored facade. Genuinely not good as a first walk, and not good if you want beauty rather than argument — parts of this route are shabby, and we do not pretend otherwise. Flat ground almost throughout.
Questions
Is there anything to see, or is it just old buildings?
It is a district, not a monument — the interest is in reading it. If you want a checklist of landmarks, the Old Tbilisi walk will serve you better and we will say so.
Is it safe?
Yes. Chugureti is ordinary residential Tbilisi, busy in the daytime and unremarkable in the way a normal neighbourhood is.
Do we go inside any of the buildings?
Into courtyards, yes — they are semi-public and we treat them as somebody's home. Into apartments, no.
Can we combine it with Sololaki?
You can do both in a day, and they pair well: one district built by trade money, one by settlers and then by planners. We would put a long lunch between them.
Is it good for photography?
Very, if you shoot texture and decay rather than postcards. Overcast days are better here than sun.
Want this walk?
Tell us your dates and how many of you there are. We answer within a day — and we will say so if a different walk suits you better.
Led by our own team, not a certified-guide marketplace — that is GuideConnect, opening later.
Other walks
Narikala, the bath quarter and the lanes below — three hours, no filler.
Sololaki: facades, courtyards and painted entrancesThe art nouveau district behind the tourist route — and the doorways you cannot open alone.
Wine bars and the supra tableThree hours, two or three bars, a tasting that is actually included — and what a supra is really for.
The market and the baths: everyday TbilisiStart at the bazaar when it is loudest, finish at the sulfur domes. Half a day, no monuments.
Updated: August 2026