Things to See in Gyumri, Armenia, Gyumri, Armenia

A vibrant energy emanates from Gyumri’s historic centre, and it is that lively atmosphere that helped us fall in love with this city. Seeing its collection of wonderful black tuff heritage buildings energized us even more. Gyumri is not a common stop for most tourists to Armenia, so realizing that these streets were designed for locals rather than tourists, made us take to it even more. There’s a lot to see in this city, and we think you will love visiting the sites in Gyumri as much as we did.

Before we explore the many things to see in Gyumri, let’s first understand its history. The city went by many names during its long existence. In the Iron Age, the Urartu Kingdom named it Kumayri, which over the centuries evolved into Gyumri. In the 1800s, the Russians renamed the city Alexandropol. Almost one hundred years later, it was a part of the Soviet Union, and its name changed yet again. The Soviets called it Leninakan. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the name was restored to Gyumri.

Its location close to the Turkish border meant that Gyumri, or Alexandropol, was situated on strategic land for the Russians. Not only did they build a fortress, but they also filled their new city with lovely stone buildings. Unfortunately, after they left, the Soviets took over and added their typical bland apartments. In 1988, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake flattened the city, killing between 25,000 and 50,000 citizens. The epicentre was only 50 km away, and eighty to ninety percent of Gyumri’s buildings collapsed or were severely damaged. Most of those were the Soviet-built high-rises, while the single-story Russian-built ones were mostly left unscathed. For us, the lack of those Soviet buildings added to the city’s likability. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).