House-museum of King Erekle II (Erekle's palace)

House-museum of King Erekle II (Erekle's palace) - Founded in 1927 as a museum of local lore. It is Located in the Kakheti region, in the city of Telavi.

The architectural complex of "Batonis Tsikhe” is a castle which still remains as the only Royal Palace in Georgia. The complex is a remarkable monument of cultural heritage with its architectural-historical features.

Museum complex embraces: XVII-XVIII c.c Royal Palace of the king of Kakheti, X-XVIII c.c churches of the court of the king, the remains of the philosophical and theological schools founded by Erekle, XVII centuries' King's Bath, tunnel paved on the territory of the palace - XVIII century, unique gates of the East and West Side. In the museum there are also preserved: numismatic material, early medieval sarcophagus, late medieval armor, collections of XVII-XIX c.c. copper household objects, weapons, Khevsureti clothes, rich collections of rugs, manuscripts, books printed in King Erekles’ press, interesting patterns of art, including: XIX c, Dutch, German, Russian (I. Aivazovsky, A. Kramskoi and the works of other artists of the "peredvizhniki" period),paintings and small plastic samples, as well as Georgian painters (E. Akhvlediani, L. Gudiashvili, J. Khutsishvili and others ) works.

The palace known as "Batonis Tsikhe" was the residence of the kings of Kakheti. The church of the palace, the east door and the bath are built in the period of Archil. In the second half of the XVIII century, Erekle II built a huge curtain wall around the palace, the height of which reached five meters. According to the chronicler Papuna Orbeliani, the King Erekle completed the construction of Telavi curtain wall in 1753. Except the main door, the fortress had other standby entrances as well, one in the south and another one in the north. King Erekles’ church is built in 1758. Beside the church, it also performed a defensive function.It had an embrasure under the roof. There is a big pier with a distance of about 10 meters from the church. It reaches 14 meters and there is no similar pier in Georgia. It was built by the Queen Darejan and until the 40s of the XIX century there was a 8-meter long cannon that was always ready to repel the enemy.