Pushkin Street

The building at 3, Pushkin St. was built in the 1870s. One part of the researchers believe that the architect of the building is Albert Saltzman, unfortunately there is no document confirming this. This building is  specified as Tbilisi City Credit Society. The Tbilisi Credit Society was founded on October 31, 1880 and was one of the branches of the credit society of the Russian Empire in the big cities of the governorates at that time. Tbilisi City Credit Society was a non-governmental financial organization that took Tbilisi estates as as a pledge. The members of the mentioned society were the owners of the mortgaged estates. The society pledged wooden and capital buildings as collateral. On wooden buildings for a term of 14 years, in exchange for 10 percent, and on whitewashed buildings for a term of 25 years, the interest rate of which was 7 percent per annum. The society gave mortgage papers as a loan. A necessary condition for granting a loan was that the real estate was to be fully insured. The building was originally a pseudo-Renaissance style building mixed with light eclecticism, with a longitudinal facade projecting onto the square. The building was reconstructed at the beginning of the 20th century and it was extended by one section. The changes also affected the interior, which was organized in the modern "Art Nouveau" style. Unlike the facade of the building, which is eclectically mixed, the interior of the building is stylistically subject to one, modern "Art Nouveau" rule. The oval-sized, two-tiered space of the large hall for banking operations is decorated quite luxuriously. Both balcony railings and columns, the ceiling of the hall are adorned with decorative elements. From the spaces between the columns of exquisite proportion and the single drawing of the plant motif,  the plastic faces of women are sculpted. Not only the artistic decoration of the interior space, but also the furniture and small plastic elements are subject to a single stylistic concept. The credit society building is one of the first banking buildings in Tbilisi. Its internal planning structure was determined by its function. In the left section of the building, the main "operational" space was located, the interior of which, but also the furniture, was arranged according to the function of the bank.