Getting There
There are different types of transport in the direction of Kutaisi: bus, microbus, train, and also flights from Tbilisi, Mestia, and Ambrolauri to Kutaisi. Feel free to take a minibus at Didube or Tbilisi central bus stations.
What to Expect
The exterior of the building is dominated by a 100-meter by 150-meter oval-shaped great glass and steel dome ploughed by a roof-like concrete element that rests on the vault.
History
The Georgian Parliament Building was constructed from 2011 to 2012 in Kutaisi, traditionally the second most important city of Georgia, 231 kilometers west of Tbilisi, the nation’s capital. The building was designed by a Spanish architectural firm and signed off by Saakashvili at a reported cost of $100 million.
The Georgian Parliament Building in Kutaisi was inaugurated on May 26 of the year 2012 and became the main seat of the newly elected Parliament in October 2012 until the legislature moved back to Tbilisi in January 2019. The project got off to a deeply inauspicious start when a towering Soviet-era war memorial behind a sword-wielding horseman was destroyed with explosives to make room for the parliament building.
The dome was one of several hypermodern structures unveiled across the country during the rule of the former president, Mikheil Saakashvili. When asked about the design, which reportedly suffered from overheating every summer due to its greenhouse-like composition, Saakashvili told RFE/RL: “Look, I believe in glass buildings. I believe in transparency. I believe in public control.”
