Guide On MapSololaki: Houses and Their Owners
From Freedom Square to Maylov Brothers' House
Guide On Map on your phone
Open the walk like a regular app
It takes about 10 seconds to install. No app store needed.
The whole path
Route map
About the walk
You will leave Freedom Square for Sololaki, passing a small garden, straight streets, and houses where the most interesting part waits inside the stairwell. The walk follows Galaktion Tabidze Street and Lado Asatiani Street, then turns toward mansions on the neighboring streets. This is not a walk about old Tbilisi in general, but about people who put money, a family name, and plans for the future into their homes.
You will see a surname set into a marble floor, murals nearly life-size, a school facade behind which a dispute over construction payments remained, and a house that, according to legend, was to become a condition of a wedding. At the square, a question will arise about why children sold drawings; at the final facade, another one: why two such different memorial plaques stand side by side.
The story separates documents from urban legend and follows what happened to private houses after the change of government. By the end, you will be able to read Sololaki through the names beneath your feet, divided apartments, and signs on the balconies.
Why this order
Freedom Square sets the starting point: banks and institutions gathered here beyond the old walls. Next, Lado Gudiashvili Square shows the fate not of one house but of an entire residential ensemble. Afterward, the route returns to the straight line of Galaktion Tabidze Street, created when Sololaki gardens were divided into blocks. First, the street explains how the neighborhood was laid out; then two neighboring houses compare the joint enterprise of six brothers with the independent venture of one owner. On Lado Asatiani Street, private capital is tied to a school building, while the mansion beside it returns the story to a family commission. Machabeli Street then leads from a private house to a mansion handed over to writers. The final walk to Maylov Brothers' House completes the sequence where the initials of a former owner and plaques to Soviet-era residents have survived side by side.
Those who want to understand Sololaki through the fates of individual houses Fans of stairwells, inscriptions, and architectural details Those who care about the difference between documents and urban legend
Those looking only for a route of major churches and panoramas Those uninterested in the history of private property and nationalization Those who do not want to hear stories of repression
Before you go
Treat every residential building as an exterior viewing point: an open door is not an invitation, so do not follow residents inside, block the passage, or photograph people without consent.
Check visiting conditions at Writers' House of Georgia separately. View the school from the street only. If you cannot enter a stairwell, the story still works through the facade, gates, memorial plaques, and the layout of the block itself.
When to go
Choose daylight hours: it is easier then to make out the gates, inscriptions, upper floors, and facade decoration. For a quieter pace, avoid combining the walk with the evening rush at Sololaki's venues.
Backup plan
If you are short on time, begin at Freedom Square, then continue to Seylanov Brothers' House, Kalantarov House, and Writers' House of Georgia, ending at the Maylov gates. This version preserves the development of the main theme: urban policy gives way to merchant architecture, then literary life and the memory of repression.
If the stairwells are closed, do not wait by the doors: look at the accessible exterior details and move on.
Walk plan
Open in maps ↗- 1
Freedom Square
This is where the walk begins at an urban junction where the secret route of a bank carriage became known to underground activists. - 2
Lado Gudiashvili Square
This stop will show how city residents turned public space itself into a means of defending it. - 3
Galaktion Tabidze Street
The change of names will help explain the failure of an attempt to govern Transcaucasia according to a uniform imperial model. - 4
Seylanov Brothers' House
The entrance hall will link the family name to the shared house of six tobacco manufacturers. - 5
Evelina Ter-Akopova House
This stop restores the owner's role as an independent entrepreneur, rather than an appendage to her well-known husband. - 6
Former Women's School on Lado Asatiani Street
The surviving papers help distinguish the construction credit arrangement from the legend of a sole benefactor. - 7
Kalantarov House
Here, the confirmed information about the commission will be separated from the condition of marriage that survives only in legend. - 8
Writers' House of Georgia
A private venue for literary gatherings leads to the story of an institution where writers were required to accuse one another. - 9
Maylov Brothers' House
The final stop will bring together, in one apartment, the former owners, new residents, and two different layers of memory.
Route features
Everything you need stays in the browser
Progress, saves and your trip plan are stored on this device.
Add Guide On Map to your home screen so the walk opens outside the browser.
How we handle sources, maps and corrections: our editorial standards