27 best sights in Yerevan

The cap­i­tal of Arme­nia is called the pink city. Yere­van owes this nick­name to pink tuff, from which most of the build­ings of the Sovi­et peri­od were built. The streets and hous­es look espe­cial­ly impres­sive at sun­set.

Who and why should come to Yerevan

The sights of Yere­van are not lim­it­ed to the her­itage of the coun­try, which has sunk into obliv­ion. Peo­ple come here to enjoy the grandeur of the city, which, accord­ing to Armen­ian archae­ol­o­gists, is old­er than Rome itself.

Local muse­ums keep rich col­lec­tions relat­ed to the his­to­ry of Arme­nia and its out­stand­ing cit­i­zens. Such excur­sions will be of inter­est to lovers of antiq­ui­ty and fam­i­lies who come with school-age chil­dren.

The tem­ples and church­es of Yere­van have a spe­cial ener­gy. Reli­gious phi­los­o­phy, embod­ied in stone and fres­coes, attracts not only pil­grims, but also peo­ple who can appre­ci­ate the majes­tic beau­ty of these unique build­ings. Well, the local streets, squares and mon­u­men­tal archi­tec­ture are of inter­est to every cul­tured and sim­ply curi­ous per­son.

Historical and religious sites

Cathedral of St. Gregory the Illuminator

The most impor­tant tem­ple in Arme­nia was erect­ed in the ear­ly 2000s in hon­or of the 1700th anniver­sary of the adop­tion of Chris­tian­i­ty. The ensem­ble con­sists of three build­ings: the church of St. Queen Ashkhen, the church of St. Tiri­dates II and the cathe­dral itself, which can accom­mo­date 1700 believ­ers, which makes it the sec­ond largest Chris­t­ian reli­gious build­ing in Tran­scau­ca­sia.

Relics asso­ci­at­ed with Gre­go­ry the Illu­mi­na­tor are kept inside. The inte­ri­or is mod­est. Its main dec­o­ra­tion is a forged chan­de­lier under a giant dome. Behind the cathe­dral is a beau­ti­ful green park with sev­er­al cafes.

Saint Zoravor Church

Built at the end of the 17th cen­tu­ry, this church is the old­est not only in Yere­van, but in all of Arme­nia. The orig­i­nal archi­tec­tur­al fea­ture of the three-aisled basil­i­ca is the absence of domes. The walls are dec­o­rat­ed with khachkars — stone ste­les with cross­es carved on them. The altar is dec­o­rat­ed with an 18th-cen­tu­ry fres­co depict­ing the Moth­er of God with the baby Jesus in her arms. Under the foun­da­tion of the church lie the relics of St. Ana­nias.

Blue Mosque

The area of ​​the only mosque in Arme­nia exceeds 7,000 sq.m. It got its name from the blue majoli­ca tiles on the façade. The ter­ri­to­ry of the com­plex also includes a library, an exhi­bi­tion hall and a large green court­yard.

Erebuni Fortress

Trans­lat­ed from Armen­ian, the name of the fortress means “bloody”. The citadel ris­es on a hill that seems to be cov­ered in blood dur­ing the flow­er­ing of pop­pies. Once upon a time, a pow­er­ful for­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­tect­ed the state of Urar­tu, which exist­ed here in the 4th-5th cen­turies. BC.

Now lit­tle is left of the majes­tic city: frag­ments of the wall, the ruins of city build­ings and the ruins of the palace. The fortress offers a panoram­ic view of the sur­round­ings, Mount Ararat and the mod­ern cap­i­tal.

Church of St. Anne

Built in 2015, this church does not belong to ancient objects with a rich his­tor­i­cal her­itage. How­ev­er, it is worth vis­it­ing to get acquaint­ed with the canon­i­cal Armen­ian archi­tec­ture in its exem­plary man­i­fes­ta­tion.

The walls of St. Ann’s Church are made of traver­tine and tuff of a rare pow­dery shade. The facade is dec­o­rat­ed with skill­ful carved orna­ments. The tem­ple itself is made in the form of a cross. A point­ed dome with sharp cor­ners inscribed in a cir­cle rush­es into the sky. The church adjoins the ancient chapel, form­ing togeth­er with it a sin­gle archi­tec­tur­al com­plex.

Khor Virap

One of the most revered church­es in Arme­nia is locat­ed about 40 km from Yere­van at the foot of the bib­li­cal Mount Ararat. Tourists are invit­ed to vis­it the Church of the Holy Vir­gin, see the monastery build­ings of the 7th cen­tu­ry, includ­ing the dun­geon where St. Gre­go­ry was kept, and also par­tic­i­pate in the cer­e­mo­ny of releas­ing doves — a sym­bol of peace and good luck.

Temple of Zvartnots

About 10 km from Yere­van is the ancient pearl — Zvart­nots, also known as the Tem­ple of the Vig­i­lant Angels. The struc­ture was buried under a lay­er of stones and dust for sev­er­al cen­turies. It was acci­den­tal­ly dis­cov­ered dur­ing earth­works.

The three-tier tem­ple was built of sil­very vol­canic tuff, and the height of its walls reached 49 m. A cross of 6 columns was locat­ed in the round base. The inte­ri­or dec­o­ra­tion was dec­o­rat­ed with fres­coes and mosaics, and oppo­site the altar there was a font with a pool. The ruins are well pre­served (as far as pos­si­ble) and deserve the clos­est inspec­tion.

Interesting places

northern avenue

A beau­ti­ful, wide and ele­gant avenue stretch­es for 1.5 km. Being com­plete­ly pedes­tri­an, it has become a point of attrac­tion for locals and tourists. On both sides of it there are shops, bou­tiques, sou­venir shops, cafes and restau­rants. Build­ings dec­o­rat­ed with tuff and traver­tine look attrac­tive.

Lovers park

The cozy city park was designed by the Swiss archi­tect Pierre Rem­bach. Shady alleys invite you to walk, com­fort­able bench­es invite you to relax, and quaint stat­ues attract atten­tion. Con­certs are held in the sum­mer amphithe­ater, and ducks are found in a small pond.

The Park of Lovers has its own small cafe. And in the evening, lights are turned on through­out the ter­ri­to­ry, empha­siz­ing the neat land­scape.

Flea market “Vernissage”

Locat­ed between Buzand and Aram streets, the flea mar­ket can be com­pared to a muse­um. Here you can see and buy real rar­i­ties, many of which have been pre­served in a sin­gle copy. Col­lec­tors come here to “hunt” for trea­sures. It is like­ly that a real mas­ter­piece was lost between the paint­ings of unknown authors, and a rare stone among the jew­el­ry. If you don’t like any­thing, just buy sou­venirs from local mer­chants as a keep­sake.

Zoo

A beau­ti­ful and well-main­tained zoo appeared in the Armen­ian cap­i­tal in 1941, and since then it has grown sig­nif­i­cant­ly. More than 400 species of birds and ani­mals from all over the world live on an area of ​​over 25 hectares. The main fea­ture of the zoo is a real­is­tic imi­ta­tion of nat­ur­al habi­tats and spa­cious safari-type enclo­sures with­out fenc­ing. For younger vis­i­tors, there is a small pet­ting zoo on site.

Museums

Brandy factory “Ararat”

There is a the­mat­ic muse­um at the cognac fac­to­ry. Its expo­si­tions tell about the evo­lu­tion of cognac, and unique pho­tographs and doc­u­ments are pre­sent­ed on the stands. Of par­tic­u­lar inter­est is the hall with bot­tles of var­i­ous shapes, into which alco­holic bev­er­ages were pre­vi­ous­ly poured.

Tourists are invit­ed to vis­it the work­shops, where they can see for them­selves how cognac ripens and is stored. At the exit, they will vis­it a tast­ing room and a sou­venir shop.

Matenadaran

It is a research cen­ter and a muse­um at the same time, whose name lit­er­al­ly means “ancient man­u­scripts”. The most valu­able books, scrolls, man­u­scripts and oth­er writ­ten doc­u­ments of great val­ue for the cul­ture of the Armen­ian peo­ple are stored here. It is believed that Mes­rop Mash­tots, the cre­ator of the Armen­ian alpha­bet, found­ed the Mate­nadaran in the 5th cen­tu­ry.

Sergei Parajanov Museum

The famous direc­tor of Armen­ian ori­gin was born and lived all his life in Tbil­isi. In their his­tor­i­cal home­land, in Yere­van, a house was built and pre­sent­ed to the mas­ter, but he did not live in it. In 1991, after the death of Para­janov, the house was turned into a muse­um. With­in its walls are more than 1,500 arti­facts asso­ci­at­ed with the name of the direc­tor, as well as his art­work.

Historical Museum and Art Gallery of Armenia

A beau­ti­ful build­ing on the main square is shared between an art gallery and a his­tor­i­cal muse­um. The muse­um has per­ma­nent exhi­bi­tions: archae­o­log­i­cal, numis­mat­ic and ethno­graph­ic.

The exhibits date back to dif­fer­ent times — from the Stone Age to the begin­ning of the 19th cen­tu­ry. The gallery exhibits works by Rubens, Lev­i­tan, Repin, Bush, Aiva­zovsky and Tin­toret­to.

Dalan Art Gallery

The unusu­al gallery exhibits the works of Armen­ian and for­eign authors, work­ing on the verge of clas­sics and avant-garde. Each paint­ing or instal­la­tion has a philo­soph­i­cal mean­ing, which every­one can try to com­pre­hend.

The main thing is not to stop cre­ative imag­i­na­tion. In addi­tion to per­ma­nent exhi­bi­tions, tem­po­rary exhi­bi­tions are also held here, where you can get acquaint­ed with the cre­ations of pro­gres­sive local artists.

The gallery has a large sou­venir shop, a restau­rant, a cafe and a tea house.

House Museum of Aram Khachaturian

In Arme­nia, they are kind to their out­stand­ing fel­low cit­i­zens. The house where com­pos­er Khacha­turi­an once lived has been turned into a muse­um. The expo­si­tions tell about the musi­cal path of the mae­stro, his per­son­al belong­ings, pho­tographs and impor­tant doc­u­ments are stored here. In one of the rooms there is a piano behind which immor­tal cre­ations were writ­ten.

Megeryan Carpet

This car­pet fac­to­ry belongs to the Megerian fam­i­ly. Car­pets have been woven and restored here for sev­er­al gen­er­a­tions.

A small work­shop appeared on a nar­row street in Yere­van in 2002 and soon grew into a large-scale pro­duc­tion. Under him, a the­mat­ic muse­um appeared, which con­tains the rarest spec­i­mens, includ­ing a car­pet woven in the 17th cen­tu­ry. A cre­ative work­shop is also locat­ed here, where those who wish are taught how to make car­pets and take orders for the man­u­fac­ture of exclu­sive prod­ucts.

The muse­um, work­shops and mas­ter class­es in weav­ing car­pets are avail­able to both local res­i­dents and tourists. A nice addi­tion is a small cafe in the court­yard of the fac­to­ry, where they serve spicy dish­es of Armen­ian cui­sine.

House Museum of Martiros Saryan

The mas­ter of land­scapes, bizarre scenery, expres­sive still lifes and poignant lit­er­ary illus­tra­tions, Mar­tiros Saryan worked in a spe­cial tech­nique that he invent­ed him­self. She made him famous and glo­ri­fied through­out the post-Sovi­et space.

On the first floor of the house-muse­um of the artist, his graph­ic sketch­es, sketch­es of the­atri­cal scenery and draw­ings are exhib­it­ed. The sec­ond shows the main works of Saryan — about 50 mas­ter­pieces in total. The artist’s stu­dio with unfin­ished paint­ings has been pre­served on the top floor.

Architectural landmarks and monuments

Train Station

The majes­tic build­ing with columns and a spire was built in 1956, imme­di­ate­ly becom­ing the hall­mark of the Armen­ian cap­i­tal.

The ensem­ble is made of vol­canic pink tuff. The rich exte­ri­or decor draws atten­tion. Por­ti­cos are dec­o­rat­ed with juicy bunch­es of grapes — a nation­al orna­ment. On the square in front of the sta­tion there is a mon­u­ment to David of Sasun, the hero of the Armen­ian epic.

Republic Square

The main square of Yere­van was found­ed in the mid­dle of the 20th cen­tu­ry. It owes its appear­ance to the archi­tect Tumanyan. Along the perime­ter, he placed build­ings of cul­tur­al and nation­al val­ue: the Min­istry of For­eign Affairs, the Main Post Office, the His­tor­i­cal Nation­al Muse­um and the Gov­ern­ment Build­ing (it can be rec­og­nized by the flag and chimes). But the main dec­o­ra­tion of this square is the foun­tains.

Complex “Cascade”

A unique com­plex of gigan­tic dimen­sions is locat­ed on the Kanaker Hills. It con­sists of flower beds spread out in a fan­cy car­pet, foun­tains, flights of stairs, view­ing plat­forms, ter­races, arch­es and stat­ues. At the top of the com­po­si­tion there is a memo­r­i­al — a reminder of the vic­tims of the Armen­ian geno­cide of 1915. If you don’t want to walk up, you can use the esca­la­tor.

“Mother Armenia”

The mon­u­ment was erect­ed in hon­or of the vic­to­ry in the Great Patri­ot­ic War. The height of the cop­per stat­ue is 22 m, and the gran­ite base is about 54 m. The com­po­si­tion stands on the top of a hill in Vic­to­ry Park (Hakhtanak). The gigan­tic build­ing can be seen from almost any­where in Yere­van. In the evening, in the rays of illu­mi­na­tion, it looks espe­cial­ly solemn.

Charles Aznavour Square

Shakhnur Aznavouri­an, bet­ter known as Charles Aznavour, was born into a fam­i­ly of Armen­ian immi­grants in France. To per­pet­u­ate the mem­o­ry of the pop­u­lar chan­son­nier and actor, the Armen­ian author­i­ties renamed the square near the Moscow cin­e­ma in his hon­or. Aznavour attend­ed the solemn event in 2001.

The semi­cir­cu­lar build­ing of the cin­e­ma with columns and mosaics, as well as the foun­tain, organ­i­cal­ly com­ple­ment the city land­scape.

Opera and Ballet theatre

The Aca­d­e­m­ic Opera and Bal­let The­ater was found­ed in 1932, but it received a sep­a­rate build­ing only 8 years lat­er.

The two-tier struc­ture resem­bles an amphithe­ater. The archi­tect O. Tumanyan, who was assigned to lead the project, was inspired by the con­struc­tivist style that was dom­i­nant at that time. The result was a mon­u­men­tal build­ing that has not lost its rel­e­vance to this day.

On the square in front of the the­ater there are mon­u­ments to A.A. Spendi­arov, whose name the the­ater bears, and O. T. Tumanyan him­self. A lit­tle fur­ther there is a cozy square with a dec­o­ra­tive pond “Swan Lake”, rem­i­nis­cent of Lake Sevan in shape.

government building

A mas­sive build­ing made of basalt bricks and tuff is the dom­i­nant fea­ture on Repub­lic Square. The facade is dec­o­rat­ed with a series of arched columns, in the cen­ter there is a tow­er with chimes. The archi­tec­ture of the build­ing com­bines sev­er­al styles: clas­si­cism, neo-goth­ic and medieval Armen­ian archi­tec­ture. Some halls are open to tourists — they host exhi­bi­tions and sig­nif­i­cant events.

Sculpture “Smoking Woman”

The orig­i­nal sculp­ture is a gift to Yere­van from the out­stand­ing Colom­bian artist Fer­nan­do Botero, who works in the tech­nique of fig­u­ra­tive art. The com­po­si­tion rep­re­sents a mag­nif­i­cent lady lying on her stom­ach with a cig­a­rette in her right hand. The cop­per stat­ue received mixed reac­tions from the towns­peo­ple, but it has def­i­nite­ly become a favorite place for pho­to shoots and self­ies.