Handpicked experience · Yerevan
Yerevan, Armenia
The martyrdom that converted a kingdom, a 618 church copied for a thousand years, and the 1918 stand forty kilometres from the capital that made a republic possible.
The seat of one of the world's oldest church hierarchies
A seventh-century building that survived intact where most did not
An excavated ground plan of a rotunda that fell down a thousand years ago
A memorial complex that doubles as a museum of the modern state
A private tour of six to seven hours from Yerevan taking in Echmiadzin, seat of the Armenian church, a seventh-century church that gave its name to an entire architectural type, the excavated ruins of a collapsed rotunda, and the memorial to the battle that made an Armenian republic possible.
Four stops within a short drive of the capital and of each other, so the day is unhurried despite covering a lot of ground historically. Being private, you can linger where you want. Two of the stops are working churches, one is an archaeological site and one is a memorial complex with a museum.
The church at the second stop is built over the grave of Hripsime, a Roman Christian woman who fled east to escape persecution and was killed here, with her companions, after refusing the Armenian king. What followed is the founding story of Christian Armenia: the king's subsequent illness, his cure by the man he had imprisoned in a pit for thirteen years, and the conversion of the kingdom in 301. Her death is the hinge the whole account turns on.
The building over that grave dates from 618 and survives essentially intact. Its plan — a cross of four apses with round niches cut into the corners — was so successful that Armenian architects reproduced it for centuries, and art historians simply call the whole family the Hripsime type. You are looking at the original of a template.
In May 1918, with the Russian front collapsed and Ottoman forces advancing on Yerevan, Armenian units and civilian volunteers stopped them near Sardarapat, some forty kilometres from the capital. Days later the first Republic of Armenia was declared. Had the line broken there, historians generally agree there would have been no state to declare.
The memorial marking that battle went up in 1968, under Soviet rule, in red tuff, with rows of winged bulls in an archaic style and a belfry whose bells are rung each year. Commemorating a battle that produced an independent Armenian republic was not an obvious thing for the authorities of the day to permit, and the complex has been read ever since as saying more than its official description allowed.
Museum and some church entry charges are settled on site. Shoulders and knees must be covered in the churches, and the memorial grounds are open and exposed. Cancellation is free up to a day ahead.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
Six to seven hours from Yerevan. All four stops lie within a short drive of the capital and of one another, so the pace stays comfortable.
A Roman Christian woman who fled east to escape persecution and was killed here with her companions after refusing the Armenian king. Her death set off the sequence that ended in the kingdom's conversion in 301.
It dates from 618, survives almost intact, and its plan — four apses in a cross with round corner niches — was copied by Armenian architects for centuries. The whole family of buildings is named after it.
In May 1918 Armenian units and civilian volunteers halted an Ottoman advance about forty kilometres from Yerevan. The first Republic of Armenia was declared days afterwards.
Because it commemorates, under Soviet rule, a battle that led directly to an independent Armenian republic. Built in red tuff with archaic winged bulls and a belfry, it has always been read as saying more than its official description.
No — museum entry and some church charges are settled on site, as are meals. The private vehicle, the driving and the guided visits are what the booking covers.
Shoulders and knees covered for the churches, and something for the sun at the memorial, where the grounds are wide open with no shade.