The impressive high-arched Parliament building has seen many momentous events, including the deaths of 19 Georgian hunger strikers at the hands of Soviet troops on 9 April 1989, and the Rose Revolution on 22 November 2003, which saw Eduard Shevardnadze abruptly forced from power. In 2012 Mikheil Saakashvili moved Georgia's parliament to Kutaisi, but it returned here in 2019 and this building is now once again home to the Georgian legislature. As such it is not open to the public.
The building was constructed between 1938 and 1953 for Georgia’s Soviet government. A small monument in front of it, and paving stones and glass panels set at irregular angles, commemorate the dead of 1989.