Gyumri

Gyumri was the cultural rival to Yerevan in the nineteenth century, a merchant and craft city with its own dialect, humour and architecture built in black and orange volcanic tufa. In 1988 a catastrophic earthquake destroyed much of the city and killed tens of thousands, and the recovery took decades; some quarters still show it. What survived, and has been restored, is the Kumayri historic district, several hundred nineteenth-century buildings of carved tufa around Vartanants Square with its twin churches. Two house museums, the Dzitoghtsyan family home and the sculptor Sergey Merkurov's house, preserve interiors of the period. The city has a strong tradition of craft workshops and a distinctly wry local character.

History

People have lived here since at least the 3rd millennium BC, and Urartian inscriptions of the 8th century BC name the place Kumayri, which may be the Gymnias of Xenophon's Anabasis; it passed to the Achaemenids, the Orontids, the Artaxiads and, in the 1st century AD, the Kamsarakan family. After the partition of 387 it fell to Sasanian Persia, the Arabs took it in 658, and Ghevond the Historian names it as a centre of Artavazd Mamikonian's rising of 733-755 against the caliphate; it flourished again under the Bagratid kingdom, above all after Ani became the capital in 961. As Alexandropol it was by the end of the 19th century the largest city of Russian-ruled Eastern Armenia and a major base of Russian troops in the wars with Turkey, and in Soviet times, as Leninakan, an industrial and textile centre (Wikipedia, Gyumri).

What you'll find

• Kumayri district - hundreds of nineteenth-century tufa buildings in the old quarter.
• Vartanants Square - the twin churches and the city's central space.
• Dzitoghtsyan house museum - a merchant family's restored interior.
• Black Fortress - a nineteenth-century Russian round fort on the edge of town.

When to go

May to October; Gyumri sits high on the Shirak plateau and winters are severe, among the coldest in the country. Summer is pleasant and the squares are lively in the evenings.

Practical notes

The earthquake's legacy is still visible in parts of the city, including unfinished housing and empty lots, and the contrast with the restored old quarter is stark. It is a working provincial city rather than a polished destination. Winter is genuinely harsh and many visitors underestimate it.

Nearby

The ruins of Ani are visible across the closed border; Amberd fortress and Aragats lie southeast.

Key facts