The Old Town is part of the Tbilisi Historic District and contains a number of officially designated monuments, churches, cobbled streets and picturesque pastel colored wooden houses with open, carved balconies. The houses are mainly 19thcentury as much of the city was destroyed by the devastating Persian invasion of 1795. Much of the Old Town has been restored under a scheme introduced by the Tbilisi government in 2009. Called “New Life for Old Tbilisi”, the scheme is restoring and rehabilitating Tbilisi’s historical districts and neighborhoods.
The Old Town contains the “Abanotubani” district where there is a whole street (Abanos kucha) of public bathhouses that use the sulphurous waters of the many hot springs in this area. Abanotubani is the place, where according to legend, King Vakhtang Gorgasali’s falcon fell, leading to the discovery of the hot springs and, subsequently the founding of a new capital. The bathhouses are located below ground level with only beehive-like domes visible on the surface.
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