Sakartvelo Sanatorium

The biggest, the youngest, the most modern. Such superlatives were also attributed to the monumental and complex Sakartvelo Healing House at the time of its creation. Due to the scale of accommodation capacities, as well as the extent of the healing and social facilities, the house is spread over several wings with their own entrance. In addition, the house is set into a steep slope. The accommodation itself was situated in two high-rise longitudinal blocks set on terrain in an east-west direction terraced back to the slope. The lower wing is situated closer to the grounds of the adjacent Megobroba sanatorium and has between 3 and 6 floors. The adjacent block then has 5 to 9 floors. Together they are connected by a glass corridor. Between them there is a natural atrium area intended also as a spatial reserve for further development of services – an outdoor recreational swimming pool. In the lower – eastern part there were two-floor complex facilities for balneotherapy, including medical clinics, hydrotherapy, a bath department with an indoor swimming pool. The house was thus connected to the springs from the spa center. The roof of the balneotherapy section was designed as a sun terrace, overlooking the spa park, also connected to the planned outdoor swimming pool. The catering and social facilities were located on the west side of the complex. Almost 600 beds already required the dining room to be divided into several levels. The cinema had an equally remarkable capacity. These functions were linked by an indoor covered atrium with a fountain decorated with glass mosaics with water and sea motifs. The entire furnishing of the rooms, as well as the other facilities, was carried out in the mid-1980‚s. The character of the rooms was miles away from the standard we know today. Glass railings, marble surfaces, wooden furniture. None of these exist anymore. However, the rewriting of the function from temporary recreation to permanent home has had perhaps the greatest impact on this house of all the Tskaltubo treatment houses. There is no doubt that its condition, combined with the unpopular aesthetics of socialist modernism, does not give the Sakartvelo Healing House much chance of renewal.