Notes from visit in August 2013

Yerevan is the capital and  gateway for arrivals to Armenia by train or plane and is convenient base for exploring the rest of the country. The city itself, while quite pleasant, safe and easy to get around, does not have much worth exploring. If your time in Armenia is limited, my advice would be to use Yerevan as a base, but spend most of your time outside the city, as it pales in comparison to this country’s true wonders.

For a city that is close to 2,800 years old and one of the oldest in the world, there is not much history in Yerevan. There’s an explanation for this. Yerevan was one of the first cities of the Soviet Union, for which a general plan was developed by the Soviets. The goal of this plan was the transformation of a provincial town into a capital city, which, while tremendously successful, ultimately meant the demolition of the historic city mosques, churches, baths and caravansaris. These were replaced by typical Stalin-era developments, albeit with distinguishing characteristic – the pink, white and cream colored tuff used in construction, which lends the city a pleasant look.

While not as atmospheric as its Caucasian counterpart Tbilisi and or as glamorous as Baku, Yerevan is charming and you can easily spend a pleasant day exploring its wide avenues and parks.

One  local favorite is the Cafesjian Center for the Arts located inside a large staircase-shaped building called the Cascade which you can climb on foot on the outside, or by take escalator inside and enjoy some fine modern art pieces both inside and outside, most donated to the museum by its benefactor, Gerard Cafesjian. Plan to spend an hour or two exploring the beautiful modern art.

The Cascade itself is an architectural marvel, the brainchild of architect Tamanian, the author of the above mentioned general plan of the city. but only completed by other architects with the first fountain built in 1960s and the entire building completed only in 2009. A monument to Tamarian stands at the end of the square.

For a nice walk head South from the Cascade to the Opera building with its ponds and summer cafes, a great place for a quick bite. You can then follow newly developed Northern Avenue to Republic Square – Yerevan’s main square with it’s Stalin era buildings. In the evenings there’s a nice dancing fountain show, similar to that in front of the Bellagio hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.

There are a few other notable places in Yerevan that we didn’t get to, due to the limited time we had in the city, but seem like they’re worth a visit depending on where your interest lie.

• Erebuni Historical Museum
• The Armenian Genocide Museum
• Museum of Film Director Sergei Parajanov
• The Matenadaran Museum of Ancient Manuscripts
• Ararat Brandy Company. If you like a good cognac or brandy, but don’t have time to do the factory tour, just find the Ararat factory store downtown and spring for a bottle of the 20 year Nairi. According to legend, Stalin presented a bottle of this to Churchill at the Yalta conference and Churchill was hooked for life. Whether true or not, the brandy really is quite good and very reasonably priced.