A monument is a no-nonsense business in Georgia. No one could possibly cite the exact number of monuments erected in that country. Nor can one imagine a guide book without them; they are also popular locations for rallies and rendezvous. They could reveal so much if they could only speak. RIA Novosti correspondent Besik Pipiya presents an image gallery of unusual and funny monuments in Georgia he has been collecting over five years.
1/18
© RIA Novosti . Besik Pipiya
The statue of Medea in the center of Batumi. In Greek mythology, Medea was a daughter of the king of Colchis (now part of Georgia) and lived here some 3,000 years ago. She was also a witch and wife to the hero Jason, chief of the Argonauts.
2/18
© RIA Novosti . Besik Pipiya
St George by sculptor Zurab Tsereteli takes up much of Freedom Square in Tbilisi (former Lenin Square), having replaced Vladimir Lenin’s monument.
3/18
© RIA Novosti . Besik Pipiya
Saint Nino, one of the most important patron saints in Georgia, is another statue by Zurab Tsereteli. She brought Christianity to Georgia in 337 with a cross made of grape branches.
4/18
© RIA Novosti . Besik Pipiya
Monument of King Vakhtang Gorgasali in Tbilisi, created by sculptor Elguja Amashukeli in 1967.
5/18
© RIA Novosti . Besik Pipiya
Alexandre Dumas’ monument in Poti, a city the great French writer visited in the late 19th century.
6/18
© RIA Novosti . Besik Pipiya
Father of a Soldier – a monument depicting a character from a 1965 Soviet film about World War II.
7/18
© RIA Novosti . Besik Pipiya
Another monument dedicated to a film, the popular Soviet comedy, Mimino.
8/18
© RIA Novosti . Бесик Пипия
Film director Sergei Paradjanov's “flying” monument in his native city of Tbilisi.
9/18
© RIA Novosti . Besik Pipiya
Monument of Navy Heroes in Poti won the Soviet Union’s State Prize.
10/18
© RIA Novosti Besik Pipiya
A falcon over a pheasant it has killed. Hunting with hawks and falcons is still popular in Georgia.
11/18
© RIA Novosti . Besik Pipiya
A bride’s statue in front of the Marriage Registration Hall in the city of Signakhi, designed after a painting by Niko Pirosmani.
12/18
© RIA Novosti . Besik Pipiya
Harlequin Monument in Mziuri children’s park.
13/18
© RIA Novosti . Besik Pipiya
Tbilisi’s main street, Rustaveli Avenue, is packed with amusing monuments of all kinds.
14/18
© RIA Novosti . Besik Pipiya
To musicians.
15/18
© RIA Novosti . Besik Pipiya
To a passenger of a horsecar.
16/18
© RIA Novosti . Besik Pipiya
To a Tbilisi lamplighter with a ladder.
17/18
© RIA Novosti . Besik Pipiya
The Tamada monument in Tbilisi is an enlarged copy of a bronze statue found in archaeological excavations in Western Georgia.
18/18
© RIA Novosti . Besik Pipiya
Young women on a bridge.
