(1915, Tbilisi – 1993, Tbilisi)
Architect, restorer, and architectural researcher. Merited Worker of Art of Georgia (1967); Laureate of the Shota Rustaveli State Prize (1987). He graduated from the Construction Faculty of the Georgian Industrial Institute with a specialization in architecture (1936). He began his pedagogical work in 1972. From 1941 onward, he was closely connected with the activities of the Institute of Georgian Art History, and from 1945 he served as a staff member of the Institute.
He participated in its field expeditions. Beginning in 1974, he was head of the Institute’s Department of Scholarly Documentation and Publication. He worked extensively on issues related to the protection of Georgia’s cultural monuments. He prepared restoration projects for numerous architectural monuments—including Nekresi, the Bagrati Cathedral, the Jvarpatiosani Church of Telovani, the Geguti palace-fortress, Kvatakhevi, and many others—and produced their scholarly analytical measurements. Together with R. Mepisashvili, Tsintsadze prepared a study on the architecture of the mountainous region of Shida Kartli; with the same co-author he published in Germany books on Old Georgian (primarily ecclesiastical) art and on medieval Georgian architecture. V. Tsintsadze is one of the leading representatives of the Georgian school of architectural restoration. Among the monuments restored by him are the Bagrati Cathedral in Kutaisi, the buttress of Svetitskhoveli in Mtskheta and the cathedral itself, the Bichvinta Cathedral, the Dranda Cathedral, and the columns of Ubisi and Martvili, among others.
V. Tsintsadze was an honorary member of the International Academy of Architecture of Eastern Countries. He received numerous state awards. He is buried in Mtskheta, in the courtyard of the Samtavro Church.
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