This house is located next to the Marjanishvili metro station. To find the famous checkered staircase, you need to enter the courtyard from the side of a small park. True, it is not so easy to take pictures there because of the many clotheslines, but when they are full of hanging laundry, the scene acquires a unique color.
Built in the early 20th century, the house has an interesting facade with brick elements. The gates to the courtyard themselves seem unremarkable, if you do not pay attention to the graffiti on the side wall. At first, it may seem that the staircase is simply lost among the ordinary painted wooden structures, but as soon as you turn left, it appears in front of you, like a hidden treasure. The staircase is decorated with elegant wooden diamonds, as if the artist decided to play with form, turning ordinary squares into unusual inclined figures. Looking at these cells, it is easy to imagine a game of tic-tac-toe.
As you climb the stairs, you feel the old floorboards creak under your feet. The house is only three stories high, but there are more flights of stairs, and the last one leads to the attic. It is this part of the structure that is in the worst condition: there are no side railings, and the stairs are noticeably wobbly. The paint has peeled off long ago, and over the centuries it has been repainted many times, so today only a restorer can determine the original color.
Neighbors say that even under Mayor David Narmania, officials came here to assess the condition of the stairs and even calculated how much would be needed for restoration. But that was all. Despite its age, the stairs have been repaired several times, but only the remaining original carved railings remind us of their former grandeur.
Today, the stairs are almost never used. Only one family lives on the second floor, the rest of the residents enter through the front entrance. The house itself was built at the end of the 19th century, and opposite it in the courtyard, another two-story building was once erected. A spiral wooden staircase led there, which was later replaced with a simpler design. The checkered staircase in this house is a living reminder of the romantic era of old Tbilisi, when even ordinary household items became real works of art.
