The Mtatsminda Pantheon of Writers and Public Figures (Georgian: მთაწმინდის მწერალთა და საზოგადო მოღვაწეთა პანთეონი, mtats'mindis mts'eralta da sazogado moghvats'eta p'anteoni) is a necropolis in Tbilisi, Georgia, where some of the most prominent writers, artists, scholars, and national heroes of Georgia are buried.
[citation needed] The first celebrities to be buried at this place were the Russian writer Alexander Griboyedov (1795–1829) and his Georgian wife Nino Chavchavadze (1812–1857).
[3] In 1929, the Government of the Soviet Union, which controlled Georgia at the time, established another pantheon on a former cemetery near the Mtatsminda Church; its opening was dedicated to the 100-year anniversary of the Alexander Griboyedov, who was buried there in 1829 with his wife (and whose grave had a sculpture of a mourning woman on it).
[5] In 1987, explosives were placed on the grave of a Bolshevik widely believed to be involved in the assassination of Ilia Chavchavadze, who is also buried in the Pantheon.
"[5] During the Saakashvili period (2004-2012), several changes were made, including the transfer of Zviad Gamsakhurdia's remains from the North Caucasus to the Mtatsminda Pantheon, as well as erecting a gravestone to some of the writers who were killed during the 1937 purges.
[7] In 2021, the remains of Giorgi Kvinitadze, a commanding general of Georgia's First Republic, were reinterred on the Mtatsminda Pantheon, after being returned from France.