The Borjgalo Private Museum is a place where the atmosphere and history of Georgia live

The Ethnographic Museum of Batumi "Borjgalo" is the first private museum in Georgia. It was opened in 2016 in Batumi on the initiative of an indigenous resident of Adjara, Kemal Turmanidze. Many tourists who have visited here note the benevolence and hospitality of the museum staff, the atmosphere of love for their native land. The museum shows that life in the high mountains of Adjara has been and remains difficult, people have to work very hard to survive, especially in the mountains, where there are off-road roads for 8 months a year, and snow falls in winter, life is cut off from the outside world.
The museum area is half a football field. There is a replica of a Georgian village with buildings, household items, tools for crafts, traditional for the southwestern region of Georgia - Adjara. This is a place where you can immerse yourself in the atmosphere and history of the country. The exposition of the museum complex will impress with its realism. Visitors are always interested in walking among small buildings, examining mannequins in clothes and interiors typical of past times.
Despite the age of the museum complex, it has already won awards, and its exhibits have been exhibited in the USA, Australia, and European countries.
The territory is fenced with a stone fence, behind which there are wooden houses with exhibitions. There are paths between them, surrounded by green lawns. There is even an artificial waterfall in the museum, 9 meters high. Nearby, you can see how a small oak sprout rises from an old stump, this composition is called "The new grows from the old."
The museum presents several branches of the economy, most often found in Georgian settlements of the late XIX, early XX centuries:
• textile production;
• pottery craft;
• metal, stone and wood processing;
• agriculture - beekeeping, fruit growing, agriculture, viticulture.
Also among the exhibits of the complex there are:
• layouts of residential and commercial buildings;
• models of the existing Batumi temples, made taking into account the interior decoration and lighting (scale 1:7.5).
Mannequins in national clothes are made in full height. Everyone is doing their own thing: a grandmother with grandchildren sorting grain, a woman with a small child, a man is engaged in a craft, children are learning to read and write. Many mannequins have prototypes - real people who lived in the native village of the creator of the museum. They are made of wax, foam and other materials, and are dressed in clothes worn by Kemal Turmanidze himself.
There are several workshops, in one jewelry is made, in the other - national Georgian musical instruments.
There are also ancient exhibits in the museum, which are more than a hundred years old, including: a tombstone with an Arabic inscription of approximately XVIII-XIX centuries, a wooden carved table of the XIX century.
The Ethnographic Museum also has 2 galleries:
• The woodcarving gallery, which presents about 350 works - pieces of furniture, bowls, souvenirs made in accordance with local traditions.
• The gallery "Aquani" (translated from Georgian as cradle), where about twenty ancient cots are collected, which were used by families in Georgian villages and villages. Among the cradles there is one that belonged to Kemal Turmanidze himself as a child.
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About the creator of the Borjgalo Museum
Most of the exhibits were created by the founder of the museum, Kemal Turmanidze. He is a real enthusiast of his business. He was born in Adjara into a large family, the main occupation of whose members was carpentry. Kemal has loved drawing since childhood. Then he led a circle on artistic wood processing in the House of Pioneers. At that time, a dream appeared - to open a museum.
Later, the master worked as a restorer in a separate workshop in the Batumi Museum of Local Lore. He made many of the exhibits here. Subsequently, the created objects were collected in groups and compositions on the territory of the current museum.
As Kemal admitted, his dream of creating a museum has come true by 75%. There are also plans to create an additional exhibition hall in which medical craft will be presented, and other ideas that have not yet been revealed to them.
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The Museum of Ethnography is open daily from 10:00 to 18:00
The ticket price (including the cost of the guide) is GEL 15
The guides speak Georgian, English, and Russian. Amateur photo and video shooting is allowed.
The recommended duration of the visit is about 1 hour.
Museum address: Georgia, Adjara, Batumi, Kakhaberi village, M. Sharashidze str. No. 14
You can get there by buses No. 12, 12a, (coming from the city center, in particular, from the stop "Cathedral"). Drive by car along the highway leading from Batumi to Akhaltsikhe.
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