Dadiani Museum

Western Georgia


The castle-like palace of the Dadiani family (old lords of Samegrelo) is now a museum set in beautifully maintained grounds. As well as interesting 19th-century paintings of the Caucasus and a fine collection of icons and crosses from the 10th to 20th centuries (in the Treasury section, which can only be visited on a guided tour), it contains one of Napoleon’s four bronze death masks, acquired through marriage between Princess Salome Dadiani and Achille Murat, Napoleon's nephew.

The wooded botanical gardens beside the park are worth a stroll too.