ABOVIAN STREET

It distils a discreet late 19th century charm. Bearing the name of the great 19th century writer who modernized the Armenian language and whose statue is at the other end of this long artery crossing Yerevan from south to north, Abovian Street is undoubtedly one of the most picturesque streets in the capital, and one of the most elegant as well. Bordered by two-storey buildings with balconies dating from the 19th century, it is one of the few that gives an idea of what Yerevan could have been like at the beginning of the 20th century, which explains the attachment of its inhabitants to this street, despite decades of propaganda denigrating the "bourgeois" architecture of the tsarist era..

There is now an effort to renovate this disinherited heritage. At the very beginning of the street, one of the city's most important businessmen rebuilt one of these buildings identically, invested by a shopping centre selling western branded products. While constructing buildings on a human scale in the former wasteland, the buildings still standing in the style known here as "Nikolai", in reference to Tsar Nicholas II under whose reign they were built, are being restored as much as possible. These are buildings in the Russian neobaroque style with elaborate pediments, pastel plastered, or in black ashlar with, sometimes, an oriental inspiration in the ornamentation, such as the former seat of the government of the First Republic, which today houses an institution of the Armenian Church (No. 7). At No. 14, the ochre facade with large white columns of the Tulip Yerevan Hotel gives an Italian charm to a small semicircular square, recently renamed Charles-Aznavour Square, where the Moskva cinema faces it. And it's true that one takes pleasure in strolling under the tall trees, in the freshness of the fountains, to sit at the terraces of the cafés set up on the pavements to watch the passers-by stroll by, numerous in this street which would like to give itself airs of Champs-Elysees with its luxury shops. Once you arrive at the Galerie des tableaux d'enfants (n° 13), rather than turning left and going to Azadoutioun square via Sayat Nova avenue, the greenery of Abovian street invites us to walk up it further north, leaving the high building of the Ani Plazza hotel on our right. The buildings visible in the second part of Abovian street are more recent, and do not let us guess the presence of the oldest monument of the city, the Katoghike church (13th century); just after the corner of Sayat Nova street, on the left sidewalk, the old and frail chapel is indeed hidden in a courtyard of buildings of the HLM type without character, which do not really emphasize it. Higher up, Abovian Street is intersected by the ring road and forms a square that has become a meeting place for young people, which is quite natural since the nearby metro station is called Ieridassartakan ("of youth") in reference to a building located higher up, at the extreme limit of Abovian Street, the Youth Palace, a high round tower whose top floor is occupied by a panoramic revolving restaurant. Young people like to meet in the green alleys of the circular boulevard (Yerevan University is in its extension on the left) to have a drink in the numerous cafés to the sound of rap, techno or rabiz music brayed by the transistors of the cassette salesmen, to give themselves illusions of Mac Do in the local fast-food restaurants, to stroll in front of the books, glasses and other objects sold on the stalls. In the evening, entertainment is also guaranteed, with the Arakast café ("sailboat") whose terrace, on the edge of a basin, attracts a "trendy" population according to local criteria.