Yerevan is one of those cities where you feel comfortable from the first minutes. Pomegranate juice, hot cakes, elegant pink houses, handsome Ararat on the horizon, no one is in a hurry – in the capital of Armenia the atmosphere is like visiting a beloved grandmother. We tell you what sights to visit in Yerevan so that your spiritual vacation is a success. But first of all, you have to rent a car Yerevan. Due to traffic, the price of a taxi is high, so you definitely need to rent a car in Armenia to make your vacation cheaper. Arranging a car rental in Yerevan is not a difficult thing. Yerevan car rental is so popular among everyone who comes to visit Armenia. So car rental in Armenia is a must-do thing once you get there.
Carpet Museum “Megerian Carpet”
Armenians have been decorating their homes with carpets since ancient times. The famous Pazyryk carpet of the 5th century BC, according to one version, was woven in the Armenian Highlands.
To feel the art of Armenian carpet weaving, go on a tour of the Megerian Carpet Factory in Yerevan. They will show how painstaking work it is to manually tie the knots that make up the pattern, and explain how six hundred colors obtained from six natural dyes. And you will also learn the story about vordan karmir, a unique dye obtained from the local Ararat cochineal insect.
In addition to rare items of museum value, the Megerian Carpet factory has carpets for sale at prices starting at $400. An economical option is to buy silver jewelry with an ornament, like on a carpet. You can click spectacular shots in the carpet photo zone for free – Instagrammers will appreciate it.
Cathedral of St. Gregory the Illuminator
Gregory the Illuminator was persecuted for a long time for his Christian views until he managed to heal Tsar Trdat III. The grateful ruler changed his anger to mercy, accepted baptism, declared Christianity the state religion, and Gregory the first bishop of Armenia.
The Cathedral of St. Gregory the Illuminator in Yerevan was built in 2001 on the occasion of the adoption of Christianity by Armenia. Let it not bother you that it lacks a centuries-old history: a special, pacifying spirit hovers in the temple, and in clear weather, an amazing view of Ararat opens from the cathedral.
Flea market “Vernissage” in Yerevan.
At the flea market in Yerevan, you can easily spend half a day looking at thousands of interesting gizmos. Handmade silver rings, brightly painted ceramic plates (Armenians love coffee on the sand), jugs, caskets and drums – you can buy a lot in ordinary souvenir shops. But you can also come across pieces, really interesting works. Ask the seller who made the doll or the vase – for sure the master is somewhere nearby and is ready to talk about his craft.
If for you a flea market in the post-Soviet space is primarily nostalgia and not shopping, then Vernissage in Yerevan also has something to offer. On the shelves, in addition to modern handmade, cupronickel spoons, FED, Smena and Zenit cameras, Verbilkovsky porcelain, stamps, medals, Slava watches and toys people carefully collected them as in childhood – as if you visited the USSR museum.
Republic Square.
On the central square of Yerevan, it is relaxed and cheerful on any day: the pink tuff buildings seem to be dressed up for the holiday, and the locals come here only in a good mood. However, there is no other way in Armenia.
If you visit Republic Square during the day, spend a couple of hours at the Historical Museum to see stone age leather shoes, armor of Urartian warriors and medieval amulets. In the evening, get ready to melt away from the aesthetic delight at the singing fountain show.
Cognac factories “Noy” and “Ararat”
Previously, there was one producer of cognac in Armenia – Nikolai Shustov’s factory. Having received the enterprise from the merchant Nerses Tairyan, Shustov bought French equipment and oak barrels. And sent technologists to study in the homeland of cognac. Things quickly went uphill, and even in Europe, they started talking about Shustov’s products. There is a story that at a blind tasting in France, Shustovsky alcohol took the Grand Prix and received the right to have a name cognac, not brandy. True, this is either an advertising move by the owner, but Armenian cognac was in demand.
After the revolution, the Shustovsky plant was nationalized and later divided into two enterprises. Now one of them is “Ararat”. It is owned by the French, the second is called “Noah” and is part of the Armenian concern.
“Noah” and “Ararat” stand 600 meters from each other. Visit both: although the story is the same. The factories are very different and tours of them people conduct in different ways. If you take both excursions with tastings, you can compare Dvin, which Stalin sent to Churchill, with five- and ten-year-old Noy cognac.
