Culture of Georgia (country)
The culture of Georgia has evolved over the country's long history, providing it with a unique national identity and a strong literary tradition based on the Georgian language and alphabet. This strong sense of national identity has helped to preserve Georgian distinctiveness despite repeated periods of foreign occupation.
Frescoes from the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, an example of Georgian medieval art depicting ships and monsters at sea.
Georgian parade armour with golden plates
A page from a 12th-century Gelati Gospel, an example of Georgian illuminated manuscripts from the Middle Ages
Ceremonial crown of the Georgian high nobility, an example of metalwork from the early modern period
Prince Nikoloz "Tato" Baratashvili was a Georgian poet. He was one of the first Georgians to marry modern nationalism with European Romanticism and to introduce "Europeanism" into Georgian literature. Due to his early death, Baratashvili left a relatively small literary heritage of fewer than forty short lyrics, one extended poem, and a few private letters, but he is nevertheless considered to be the high point of Georgian Romanticism. He was referred to as the "Georgian Byron".
Nikoloz Baratashvili
Baratashvili's hopeless infatuation: Ekaterine Chavchavadze, by Franz Xaver Winterhalter
Bedi Kartlisa by Baratashvili, 1839.
