Twenty-one years ago, Tvereli Church was a familiar sight from Nino Khachapuridze's house in Tbilisi. However, the building of a high-rise in 2002 at the intersection of the Georgian capital’s Vera and Mtatsminda districts altered the scene. Not only did it block the church from view, but it also kickstarted a construction boom that swallowed the church entirely. This marked a shift in the traditional landscape of the city, rendering Tvereli Church nothing more than a distant memory.

Nino Khachapuridze* resides in a Tbilisi courtyard on Vera. Adjacent to her residence, at Gunia Street #2, stood a house constructed in the 1880s. During the Soviet era, the house was divided into living quarters for several families and was home to three families before it was eventually dismantled and turned into a multistory residential building in the 1970s.

Nino Khachapuridze learned about  the construction of the residential building in January 2002. That was  before the Rose Revolution, which ushered in a construction boom that completely engulfed the city within a few years.

She immediately decided to take legal action against the construction, which violated a regulation that the multi-story building must be 6-15 meters away from Nino's house.

Throughout her legal battle, she documented the construction, eventually creating a photographic archive of the evolution of Tbilisi's historic neighborhoods.

Nino lost the court case; however, she filed a lawsuit with the prosecutor's office and, in 2008, the Prosecutor's Office acknowledged her as a victim of document falsification. Despite that victory, her situation remained essentially unchanged so Nino appealed to the European Court of Human Rights. After waiting for three years, she was informed that the court could not address her case.

"I neither understood litigation nor knew the law, I learned these things along the way. At every stage, no matter how much evidence I found, so much was corrected, changed, and the evidence I found was disregarded. I used to save money for food so that I could collect enough money for a legal battle. There were no results; I went back and forth in court for 10 years."

Despite many years of efforts, Nino's fight was unsuccessful: the multi-story building was built at the corner of Gunia Street.

The newly constructed residential building was mainly inhabited by well-off residents. Initially, they could enjoy a view of Tvereli Church from their windows, but that also changed soon. The surge in construction, including the rise of hotels and new apartment complexes, entirely obscured the view of Tbilisi, effectively concealing Tvereli Church amidst the bustling urban structures.

According to Nino, the current state of the historical districts of Vera and Mtatsminda in Tbilisi has been unimaginable.

“The view was amazing, it was also romantic, people were walking, enjoying the illuminated panorama of Tbilisi. Now this view is gone, it is unimaginable to block the road like this. Tvereli Church has completely disappeared from sight. Before, the church was clearly visible. When I looked out the window, the sun was rising over Tvereli. It was so beautiful, it would make you speechless.”

The ongoing construction boom in Tbilisi's historic districts has resulted in various types of victims, including those who agreed to convert their old houses into high-rise buildings. Mariam Topuria, 33,  has been waiting for an apartment in a new building near Tvereli Church for seven years from the project, built by MK Development. A Studio Monitor investigation into the promised apartments found evidence of an alleged corrupt deal involving the deputy mayor of Tbilisi, Irakli Bendeliani, and the construction company MK Development. Both parties have denied the allegations.

“We suffered both materially and morally,” Mariam says. “We plan to take more measures. We demand they finish construction immediately, as well as [provide] material and moral compensation. The construction management does not consider our problem to be of any importance, however. We do not receive any attention or response.”

Sopo Turmanidze is in a similar situation. She is suing for compensation for rent she has been paying for all these years as she waits for a promised apartment as well as for material damages.

"We did not expect to find ourselves in this situation. It was a beautiful area, it had a historical and old appearance…but now it is wrapped in concrete, cement and pollution," she says.

Tbilisi City Hall has repeatedly granted extensions to MK Development to complete the project, even after the company was fined ₾10,000 ($3,710) for a construction violation. In fact, City Hall increased the company's construction area by 664 sq.m. With the cost of 1 square meter in Mtatsminda at ₾4,900, the expanded construction area's value exceeds ₾3 million.

City Hall justifies these actions as complying  with current legislation. The law gives a construction company the right to request a project correction after it pays a fine. City Hall contends that the adjustments, leading to an increased residential area, adhere to existing city-building parameters.

Tbilisi City Hall contends the disputes between private individuals and MK Development fall outside its purview.

Tvereli Church was built by Johann Dietzmann, a German engineer. The church has the status of a cultural heritage monument of the national category, which means that the status is legally protected by the law on cultural heritage. The law defines the areas of physical and visual protection of the monument.

Art critic Tsira Elisashvili considers the construction activities surrounding the Tvereli church as a prime example of the city's distortion. She maintains the iconic Tvereli Church symbolized the end of the urban districts of Tbilisi and the start of woodland from the slope of Mtatsminda.

Elishashvili notes that Tvereli Church was a valued asset that  defined Tbilisi's uniqueness. This distinction, she explains, stemmed from the relationship between architecture and the surrounding landscape.

She argues that, regardless of the scale of the issue, the urbanization of this area is not solely an architectural concern. It also carries a social dimension, exemplifying inequality, the predominance of big capital, and the violation of the rights of the local population. In this scenario, the privilege of enjoying the view of Tbilisi is limited to those with the means to pay several thousand dollars per square meter.

"This is an example of when the city government violates the right of the locals to live in a healthy environment and makes a decision against the interests of the city," she says.

In response to a Chai Khana request for comment about the impact of constructing a multi-storey building near the Tvereli Church, a cultural heritage monument, a historical district,  Tbilisi City Hall stated that the building construction permit aligns with all applicable laws.

The determination of Tbilisi residents serves as a testimony to the shared impact of the city's disorderly urbanization, highlighted by ongoing rallies to protect Tvereli Church. Despite their efforts, however, new construction persists in this historic sector of Tbilisi.

*Elene Khachapuridze’s aunt