Voyay walking tour

Stages and Stories of New Tiflis

Trace German settlement, multicultural workshops, and Tbilisi’s living left-bank stages

Tbilisi, Georgia
11 stops
171 min
5.8 km
History

Free in the Voyay app

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This walk reveals a side of Tbilisi built through migration, trade, craftsmanship, and performance. Following the spine of Davit Aghmashenebeli Avenue, you will trace the former German settlement of Neu-Tiflis without mistaking its European-looking architecture for the work of one community alone. The journey begins with the energetic commerce of Dezerter Bazaar and the theatrical archives of the Art Palace. From there, concert halls, youth theater, restored façades, workshops, and former industrial spaces show how the district evolved from gardens and artisan plots into a fashionable imperial boulevard and a modern creative neighborhood. Around Marjanishvili Square, the story turns to memory and erasure at the site of the vanished Lutheran church. Nearby Georgian and Armenian theaters demonstrate what survived: a remarkably diverse performance culture shaped by overlapping languages, audiences, and artistic traditions. This tour is ideal for architecture lovers, theater enthusiasts, urban explorers, and anyone curious about the communities behind Tbilisi’s façades. Come for the handsome avenue and lively venues; leave with a richer picture of New Tiflis as a multicultural neighborhood still producing culture today.

Try the first stop

Free sample · Stop 1

Dezerter Bazaar

A railway-side market where regional produce keeps Chughureti’s trading pulse alive.

Begin amid heaps of herbs, cheeses, fruit, spices, and churchkhela at Tbilisi’s great railway-side market. The bazaar introduces New Tiflis through labor and exchange rather than polished façades. Its crowded aisles show how farmers, traders, restaurants, and households still connect Chughureti with regions across Georgia.

The route

11 stops, in order.

1
Stop 1 · Free sample
Dezerter Bazaar
A railway-side market where regional produce keeps Chughureti’s trading pulse alive.
Stop 2
Art Palace of Georgia
A theatrical treasure house in a palace linked to architect Paul Stern.
3
Stop 3
Jansug Kakhidze Music Center
A living concert hall continuing the avenue’s long performance tradition.
Stop 4
Davit Aghmashenebeli Avenue
New Tiflis unfolds through European façades, workshops, balconies, and multicultural commerce.
5
Stop 5
Nodar Dumbadze Youth Theatre
A beloved playhouse where generations first encounter live Georgian theater.
6
Stop 6
Kote Marjanishvili Theatre
The left bank’s defining Georgian drama theater occupies a philanthropic people’s house.
Stop 7
Marjanishvili Square
A vanished Lutheran church anchors the German colony’s most powerful memory.
8
Stop 8
Folklore State Centre
Georgia’s regional songs and traditions meet a Europeanized imperial boulevard.
Stop 9
Fabrika Tbilisi
A Soviet sewing factory reborn as Chughureti’s energetic creative courtyard.
Stop 10
Saarbrücken Square
A modern German place-name closes the avenue’s centuries-spanning transformation story.
Stop 11
Petros Adamian Theatre
A living Armenian-language stage reveals who truly shaped cosmopolitan Tiflis.