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UNDER
CONSTRUCTION
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Vanadzor
(till
1935 Gharakilisa or “Black Church,” till 1992 Kirovakan after
Bolshevik Caucasus specialist Sergei M. Kirov/Kostrikov, murdered in
1934 and buried in the Kremlin Wall) is the capital of Lori Marz,
Armenia’s third largest city, laid out ambitiously in a once-lovely
valley.
Vanadzor lost |
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An E turn from the
begining of Vanadzor leads to Darpas.
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UNDER
CONSTRUCTION
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564
residents in the 1988 earthquake, but preserved most of its grand main
street. There is a
high-rise hotel with intermittent running water and other amenities. Vanadzor’s history dates back to the Bronze Age, with
interesting tombs and other material finds now, in principle,
housed in
the local museum. The town received its name possibly as early as the
13th
c., from a black stone church on a nearby hill. Totally destroyed in 1826 by Hasan Khan during the
Russo-Persian
war, the city enjoyed considerable uplift from the opening of the
railroad to Tbilisi in 1899. In
May 1918, General Nazarbekian’s outnumbered troops fought the Turkish
Army to a creditable tie, pushing them back a few days later at the
crucial battle of Sardarapat. On
the N side of the Spitak-Vanadzor highway is the
13-17th
c. church with fine khachkars and about 2 km W of the city,
there is a little shrine in the ruins of a church, site of a planned
monument to that battle.
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