PLACE DE LA LIBERTE (AZADOUTIOUN)

This is where the other heart of Yerevan beats… where the greenbelt stops, Commence Machtots avenue, which defines the cultural and artistic perimeter. This large radial, which cuts the centre of Yerevan from the north-east to the southeast, alongside Abovian street, was formerly called Lenin; it was renamed the creator of the Armenian alphabet, Mesrop Machtots, including the "temple", the Institute of ancient manuscripts, the Maténadaran, is one of the most visited monuments of the city. Dating back to 1957, the imposing grey stone building preceded by the statues of the patriarchs of the Armenian book, finished the boulevard on your left, at the foot of the Victory Park (Hakhtanak), dominated by the statue of Mother Armenia. Taking the right onto the Avenue Mesrob Machtots, you enter a green area, where the building in the Hemicycle of the Yerevan Opera House stands; opposite, in the centre of Tamanian Square, the high white statue of the architect and town planner of Yerevan, which gave her his name, both hands on his working table, turns his back to a similarly white stone cast called Cascade, which slides the slopes of the park since the golden jubilee of Soviet Armenia. This gigantic construction was originally supposed to release water, the flow of which was visibly dry, to allow a large escalator to connect the high part of the city to the place of the Opera. But an American billionaire of Armenian origin has pledged to revive this "Cascade" at the foot of which a large black cat of Botero is now being watched, an inaugural piece of a set that aims to become one of the high places of Armenian art and which hosts different shows, contributing to the animation of the neighbourhood. A sign of this change, the Tamanian Square was renamed place de France (Fransaï Hrabarak) and was inaugurated with great pomp by President Chirac during his official visit to Armenia on 29 September 2006. More than one square, the Place de la Liberté is a park, where coffee terraces have bloom in recent years, around the basin surrounded by willows which extends to the steps of the Opera and Ballet Theatre built in the national style by the Incontournable and bearing the name of composer Spendiarian. Several arteries radiate from the Opera, including the brand new avenue du Nord and Avenue du Maréchal Baghramian, one of the most beautiful in Yerevan, with its residential buildings lost in the greenery, the Parc des Amoureux, among others, its official buildings including the neoclassical palace in the former central committee of the local P.C. local committee and Parliament. Freedom Square is no longer this haven of peace, where the previously rare customers drew the dissidents and contrarian intellectuals of the capital. it now vibrates with an intense animation generated by the countless coffee terraces, equipped for one of them with open billard, where the youth of Yerevan meet. Artists always expose their paintings at the foot of trees, under the benevolent or critical gaze of Mardiros Sarian, the great official painter of the Soviet period, who has his statue. His house-museum is a little further away, at No. 3 of rue Sarian, next to the church Saint-Asdvadzadzine (Sourp Zoravor, th century), in Pushkin street, which cuts the avenue Mesrop Machtots. Later, at No. 17 on the avenue, another major figure of Armenian arts and letters, the poet Yeghiché Tcharents, disappeared in the 1937 purges, also has his house-museum.