Stone Heads of Sno

Why go

Merab Piranishvili was born in Sno in 1950 and graduated from the sculpture faculty of the Tbilisi Art Academy in 1977. In 1984 he began carving portraits directly into granite stones on a hillside at the entrance to his home village, letting the shape of each boulder suggest the face rather than imposing a design on it, and the open-air exhibition has continued ever since. The earliest and best-known pieces are likenesses of Georgian literary and historical figures — Shota Rustaveli, Ilia Chavchavadze, Vazha-Pshavela and Alexandre Kazbegi. Piranishvili has added further portraits over the decades, including Giorgi Saakadze, Shiola Gudushauri, Saint George and the Theotokos, and more recently a Christ figure carved in quartz. He has spoken of an ambition to eventually create around 500 sculptures and turn the hillside into a dedicated open-air museum; the current total is not independently verified and is not stated here. The site sits a short detour off the Georgian Military Highway, on the road toward Sno and Juta, making it an easy add-on to a Stepantsminda trip rather than a destination in its own right.