Our Trip
Day 4 - May 1
This time we went to Gyumri in the northwest of Armenia. The weather became more and more unstable and cold as we travelled upwards. At first we visited the cathedral and palace ruin of Arutch. The cathedral had been built in the 7th century and is said to be one of the largest churches in Armenia. Right beside it a palace had been built of which nowadays there are just some walls left. Nonetheless one can guess how impressive it must have been.
The cathedral of Arutch
Inside the cathedral
The ancient cemetery
View from the palace ruins onto the cathedral
Inside the former palace
Caravansarai near Arutch
The next place to visit was Talin where there was also a cathedral, a church and a cemetery to see. The cathedral had been partly destroyed by two earthquakes. It was particularly interesting for us to see a contemporary Armenian cemetery, as - other than in Europe - very often the pictures of the dead are carved into the gravestones. Also on some of the graves are small tables and stools, so that the relatives can hold picnics in the presence of their deceased loved ones. There is also a remarkable difference between the pompous looking graves and the simple looking houses of the villagers.
The cathedral of Talin
Inside the cathedral
The destroyed vestibule
The church
View from the cemetery onto the cathedral
Also dead children are carved in stone
Graves of Karabakh fighters
After lunch in Talin we continued our trip to Gyumri. This town had been seriously affected by the earthquake in 1988. However, it is remarkable that the buildings built before Soviet times remained almost undestroyed while the newer houses fell apart. The reason was that despite the well-known danger of earthquakes in that area the Soviet architects stubbornly stuck to their method of building houses of precast concrete slabs. This was the main reason why so many people got killed. Meanwhile new and earthquake proof houses have been built - a lot of them with foreign help. However, many people still have to live in makeshift homes - even though their situation is certainly not worse than the situation of the poor elsewhere in the country.
This more than a century old house remained undestroyed -
- today it contains a museum of architecture -
- while this hotel built in Soviet times just fell apart
New earthquake proof houses ...
... and makeshift homes of the poor
In the late afternoon we returned to Yerevan. Dinner was served in the "Arma" restaurant, in a kind of wintergarden in a hotel overlooking the city.
The rich in Armenia show off their wealth in Hollywood style - a mansion outside of Yerevan
"Arma" restaurant
Sunset over Yerevan
Photos by us
©2009 Hermann-Peter Steinmüller & Dr. Barbara Strohmenger
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