Tour Tbilisi Art Palace museum while staying at home [VIDEO]

As the new coronavirus outbreak continues to spread across the world and cultural venues in Georgia remain in shutdown along with other public institutions, the Art Palace museum is offering those staying at home a YouTube recording of a tour of the iconic Tbilisi space.

The unique building with historical roots tied to an international romance story, the Art Palace is formally known as the Georgian Stae Museum of Theatre, Music, Cinema and Choreography and located in the old town section of the capital at 6, Ia Kargareteli Street.

A nominee of last year's European Museum of the Year Award as a recognition of its 2014 renovation, the venue also became the first museum in the country to have its collections showcased on Google Arts & Culture, a large online repository of cultural heritage exhibits and information from across the world.

The 2014 upgrade of the 1927-launched museum saw the venue's individual, themed halls revitalised along with wall paintings restored with historical accuracy.

Find the recording of the Art Palace tour - a joint project between Tbilisi City Hall and ArtArea platform - below:

The tour, recorded in 2015, is a guide by the museum's General Director Giorgi Kalandia throughout the venue's history, starting with the street it is found on and leading a group of citizens throughout the rooms and exhibits of the cultural institution.

Construction of the building was commissioned by German Prince Constantine Oldenburg as a present to Georgian woman Agraphina Japaridze, his romantic partner who left her husband and the western Georgian city of Kutaisi to move to capital Tbilisi in the 1880s.

Its design coming from architect Paul Stern, author of other recognised buildings of the 19th century Tbilisi, the venue is called a "perfect example of Gothic and Islamic architecture" in the official museum history.

Beside the Google cultural platform - which has pages for various collections of the Tbilisi museum - exhibits of the Art Palace can also be found at Europeana, the largest European digital platform for cultural heritage.