«Magic Kingdom»

The Tbilisi Circus is the main circus in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. It is housed in a Soviet-era Neoclassical rotunda building built in 1939 on a hilltop overlooking Heroes' Square. Its original big top building was destroyed in a fire in 1911 and the circus was moved to a former wine factory, before settling down, in 1939, in its present Neoclassical, Joseph Stalin-era building designed by Nikolay Neprintsev, Vladimer Urushadze, and Stepan Satunts. With its 2,000-seat capacity, the Tbilisi Circus was ranked among the largest circuses in the Soviet Union, alongside those of Moscow, Kiev, and Baku. A civil unrest and economic collapse in post-Soviet Georgia terminated the circus's heyday in the 1990s. In 2003, the Georgian tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili bought the circus and began an extensive reconstruction, but his involvement in the 2007 political crisis and death shortly thereafter stalled the renovations. His sister, Mzia Tortladze, was able to reopen the circus only in 2011. Since then, the circus has been playing to sellout crowds, bringing together troupes and performers from various parts of the world.