A wizardry school? Neo-Gothic architecture in Tbilisi

In the capital city of Tbilisi, Georgia, is a grand old school of Gothic proportions. In the Old City stands the Neo-Gothic style building, built in 1903 as the Third Girls Gymnasium. It is still functioning as a school – the Sechste Autorisierte Schule – the Sixth Authorized School.

Built at the base of Sololaki Hill, its stark brick exterior could be the facade to a wizardry school, like the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter children’s fantasy novel series (1997-2007).

The Neo-Gothic architectural style is also the style of the London Parliament (1840-1860) in England and the Washington National Cathedral (1907-1990) in America. It depicts the vertical framed windows and decorated corner gables (although the ones in this school are not as ornately decorated as most Neo-Gothic buildings with impressive spires and gargoyles).

The fictional Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a coeducational secondary school, is somewhere in the mountains of Scotland, next to a lake on extensive grounds – and is more of a castle than a school building. Established in the 9th or 10th century, the school belongs to the Middle Ages, the medieval period, although Harry Potter, the young wizard, starts his schooling there in 1991 with Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.

This Tbilisi school doesn’t have the lavish grounds and medieval presence of Hogwarts, but it does look imposing next to its adjacent buildings.

MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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