Sights in Yerevan
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Mother Armenia
Symbolism abounds in the huge statue of Mother Armenia. She looms over the city in line with Mesrop Mashtots Poghota, on a classic Soviet plaza complete with tanks and jets set on pedestals at the eastern end of Haghtanak (Victory) Park. The 23m-high Mother Armenia glares out across the city towards the Turkish border with a massive sword held defensively in front of her. She replaced a Stalin statue in 1967.
Two soldiers died when his statue was wrenched off unannounced one night, leading to grim muttering about Stalin still killing from beyond the grave.
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Sergei Paradjanov Museum
This engaging, eccentric house museum of an avant-garde film director and artist SergeiParadjanov, showcases his colourful, amusing collages and framed found-object sculptures, as well as sketches and designs for his films. There’s real wit and flair to his work, and it’s well worth visiting even if avant-garde 20th-century film isn’t normally your thing. There are postcards and videos of his major films for sale.
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National Folk Art Museum of Armenia
Has a large display of Armenia’s finest crafts, which reveal the exotic influence of the East in Armenian culture. There’s also a nice lace exhibit and some interesting woodcarving.
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Cascade
A vast flight of stone steps and flower beds, the Cascade leads up to a monument commemorating the 50th anniversary of Soviet Armenia. It completes one end of Tumanyan's north-south axis through the city, in line with Tigran Mets Poghota and the Hyusisayin Poghota (Northern Avenue) project. There are five recessed fountains along the Cascade, some with sculpted panels and postmodern khatchkars.
The top section of the Cascade was left unfinished when independence arrived, until 2001 when diasporan philanthropist and art collector Gerald L Cafesjian took over the project. Since then the vast concrete structure has been cleaned, the escalators through its core repaired and …
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National Art Gallery
Holding the third biggest collection of European masters in the former USSR, many of the works in the National Art Gallery were appropriated in Europe during WWII. This national treasure includes works by Donatello, Tintoretto, Fragonard, Courbet, Theodore Rousseau, Rodin, Rubens and Jan Van Dyck. There are also many works by Russian painters, and Armenian painters, sculptors and graphic artists including Martiros Sarian, Yervand Kochar and Sedrak Arakelyan. Note that the floors are a little wonky – floor seven is marked floor eight in the elevator, and so forth. If you can talk your way into visiting the roof there are opportunities here for sweeping city views.
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Surp Grigor Lusavorich Cathedral
Modern Yerevan's first real cathedral was built to celebrate 1700 years of Christianity in Armenia and was consecrated in 2001. This hulking building stands on a small hill where Khandjian Poghots meets Tigran Mets Poghota. It's a bit brutalist in execution, possibly because it hasn't been around for 1000 years and collected age, atmosphere and khatchkars. Stairs leading up from Tigran Mets Poghota point straight at the carbuncle of the Kino Rossiya building across the street.
There's a statue of Zoravar Andranik at the bottom of the stairs. General Andranik Ozanian led the army that defeated the Turks at Sardarapat in May 1918.
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Hanrapetutyan Hraparak
The former Lenin square, Hanrapetutyan Hraparak is surrounded by the city's finest ensemble of buildings, particularly the Armenia Marriott Hotel and the National Art Gallery and State Museum of Armenian History, where Stalinist scale meets Armenian architecture in a huge yellow-and-cream building facing some massive fountains. The statue of Lenin now lies on its back in the museum's courtyard while the head is apparently stored in the basement.
The centre of the square (more of an oval) is now a flat stretch of polished marble. New lights and repaired fountains make Hanrapetutyan Hraparak a focal point on warm afternoons and nights.
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State Museum of Armenian History
This museum spans from Stone Age cave dwellers in the Hrazdan Gorge to the astronomy and metallurgy of 3000 BC Metsamor, the Urartu Empire and the gathering of the Hayk tribes into a nation in the 6th century BC. After that, centuries fly past through Hellenic Armenia, the arrival of Christianity and long wars against Persia, the Arab conquest and subsequent flowering at Ani, and then the long centuries under Muslim Turkish and Persian rule. There are medieval khatchkars, costumes, jewellery, coins, and models of buried settlements and lost churches.
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Museum of the Armenian Genocide
Commemorating the agony of the 1915–22 genocide of Armenians during the death throes of the Ottoman Empire, the Museum of the Armenian Genocide and memorial create a moving experience. The museum lies underground in a grey stone hall. Large photographs (many, but not all, with English explanations) tell the story of the genocide simply and baldly. There’s no effort to demonise the Ottoman authorities; the facts are allowed to speak for themselves.
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Military Museum
The interior is based on Surp Hripsime at Echmiadzin, a brave acknowledgment of religion by the architect during Stalin’s lifetime. Originally fitted out with displays from WWII (300,000 Armenians died, half of those sent to fight), today most of the space is devoted to the Karabakh War – a Dashnak’s paradise which includes a tableau of female soldiers in the Karabakh conflict. All explanations are in Armenian but the dioramas are easily grasped.
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Martiros Sarian Museum
Start your visit to the museum upstairs with Martiros Sarian's sombre early works, then watch the colours erupt as he falls in love with Persia and Egypt. His art seems to mature by fusing those colours into a vision of an Oriental Armenia, landscapes of stark mountains, green villages and plunging gorges. Sarian’s large studio remains as it was when the artist died in the 1950s.
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Norarar Pordzarakan Arvesti Kentovon
The Norarar Pordzarakan Arvesti Kentovon (Armenian Centre for Contemporary Experimental Art) is a large, well-appointed gallery and art complex. Yervand Kochar’s 1959 figure Melancholy pines at the entrance. Most of the artists in residence are in their 20s, and avant-garde concerts and performances are held in a huge auditorium.
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Matenadaran
Armenia’s ancient manuscripts library, the Matenadaran, stands like a cathedral at the top of Yerevan’s grandest avenue. It preserves more than 17,000 Armenian manuscripts and 100,000 medieval and modern documents. The first Matenadaran for Armenian texts was built by St Mesrop Mashtots at Vagarshapat (Echmiadzin) in the 5th century.
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Blue Mosque
An appropriate place to wear trousers and a long-sleeved shirt – no bare legs or shoulders. The Soviets turned the mosque into the Yerevan City Museum until it was restored and somewhat ‘modernised’ by an Iranian religious-government foundation in the 1990s. It lives on as a sign of Armenia’s necessarily good relations with Iran.
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Katoghike
The tiny Katoghike is at the corner of Sayat-Nova Poghota and Abovyan Poghots. The Soviets were demolishing a later church here in 1936, which exposed the fine inscriptions on the chapel. Amazingly enough for that era, a public outcry let the chapel survive. Fragments from the dismantled church lie around it.
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Opera House
The landmark of the northern part of the city, the Opera House is surrounded by parks, cafés, nightclubs and shops. The building has two main halls: the Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall and the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, thoroughly upgraded in 2003.
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Haghtanak Park
Haghtanak Park is a mostly overgrown patch of woods. Watch out for children (and sometimes adults) speeding around in miniatures cars. There's a quaint amusement park in the park with a Ferris wheel, cafés and outdoor billiards tables.
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Museum of the Middle East
The Museum of the Middle East houses a small but diverse collection of artefacts from Zoroastrian Persia and early regional civilisations from Luristan and Elam. It affords a peek at Lenin’s headless statue in a courtyard.
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Erebuni Museum
The Erebuni Museum, at the bottom of the hill, has cuneiform tablets and jewellery excavated from the site in a striking 1960s Soviet building with huge apricot-coloured tufa (volcanic stone) friezes.
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Museum of Russian Art
A collection of 200 works by 19th- and 20th-century Russian artists, donated by Professor Aram Abrahamian, who had a taste for cheerfully picturesque landscapes. Enter on Tamanyan Poghots.
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Surp Sargis Church
The Surp Sargis church is on Israeliyan Poghots just off Mashtots, overlooking the Hrazdan. The Sunday liturgy and choir is particularly good.
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State Museum of Wood-Carving
The State Museum of Wood-Carving is actually an interesting collection of some meticulous pieces, both modern and medieval.
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Zoravar Church
Churches in the area include the Zoravar Church, one of the nicest little secrets in the city, tucked away off Gharam Parpetsi Poghots.
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Artists’ Union
The Artists’ Union, next to the Golden Tulip – Hotel Yerevan, is a major exhibition space.
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Yervand Kochar Museum
Features the sculpture and Cubist-style three-dimensional paintings of the brilliant draughtsman and artist.
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