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Batumi, 11 Konstantine Gamsakhurdia Street / 20 Memed Abashidze Street
The building, designed in the Baroque style, was constructed between 1903 and 1904 and served as the residence of Batumi City Council deputy Nikoloz Sabaev. Originally built as a two-story house, a third floor was added later. According to sources, the sculpted titan figures adorning the building were created in the 1910s by Pololikashvili, a well-known sculptor who had moved to Batumi from Kutaisi.
Constructed from stone and block and plastered throughout, the building is lavishly adorned with plastic decorative elements. It stands prominently at the corner of two intersecting streets. The central entrance is located on the Gamsakhurdia Street façade, while the entrance from Abashidze Street is set slightly inward and features a canopy supported by metal brackets. Both façades are similarly treated, with slightly projecting risalits accentuating the surfaces.
The first floor, finished in rusticated plaster, is simple in design and segmented by rectangular windows. The façades of the second and third floors feature a mixture of rectangular and arched windows, adorned in some areas with Corinthian half-columns and in others with pilasters. Most of the windows are highlighted by flat pediments. On the later-added third floor, the windows are generally narrower and presented in pairs, combining arched and rectangular forms.
Each central section of the façades features balconies on the second and third floors, supported by ornate brackets and framed with balustrades. Among the building s rich sculptural decor, notable elements include small sculpted female heads centered above arched windows, and large male heads placed within arched pediments above the risalits.
At the corner of the building, a round bay window spans the upper two floors, supported at ground level by powerful Atlantean figures. The bay window is topped with a silver spire resembling a fish fin.
The building is crowned with a prominent cornice decorated with sculpted brackets. Architecturally and artistically, the structure is of high value. It is a grand-scale building, richly decorated with baroque-inspired elements that create a lively interplay of light and shadow on the façades. Despite the repetitive use of familiar forms, the design avoids monotony. Instead, the façades feel animated, festive, and engaging—likely due to the careful use of monumental forms.
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