Nobel Brothers Batumi Technological Museum

The development of the oil industry in the Caucasus region in the late nineteenth century was strongly supported by several of Europe’s leading industrial and banking families including the Rothchilds and the Nobels. A critical factor was the construction of railways and pipelines conveying oil from the Baku region on the shores of the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan to the shores of the Black Sea at Batumi in Georgia.

The museum in Batumi, which opened in 2007, has exhibits showing the development of the oil industry, the introduction of Chinese labour and the development of a tea-drinking culture. There are also displays on printing and photography featuring the work of the Georgian Prokudin-Gorski, a pioneer of colour photography.