Armenia's second city sits on a high plateau in the northwest of the country, close to the Turkish border. Gyumri has a character quite distinct from Yerevan — darker, grittier, and deeply proud. The city was devastated by the 1988 earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people, and the scars are still visible in some neighbourhoods. But Gyumri has rebuilt itself with stubborn determination, and what you find today is a city with genuine warmth, sharp humour, and a cultural life that punches well above its weight.
The old town, centred around Vartanants Square, is the heart of the city. The Kumayri historic district — the old name for Gyumri before the Russians renamed it Alexandrapol — gives the city its most distinctive architecture: black and orange tufa stone, wrought-iron balconies, and 19th-century merchants' houses that survived the earthquake precisely because they were built to old methods. Streets of these houses, many beautifully restored and some still crumbling, line the old quarters.
Gyumri is sometimes called the City of Seven Churches. The most important is the Church of the Holy Mother of God (Yot Verk), which was one of only two churches in all of Soviet Armenia allowed to stay open. The Church of the Holy Saviour (Amenaprkitch), modelled after the cathedral at Ani, dominates the skyline and has been painstakingly restored after the 1988 earthquake. The smaller churches — Saint Nshan (Sev Zham), the Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Martyrs, and others — are scattered through the old quarters.
The arts scene is lively. Gyumri has produced a disproportionate number of Armenia's poets, actors, and musicians. The poets Hovhannes Shiraz and Avetik Isahakyan were both born here, and the Aslamazyan Gallery shows the work of two celebrated painter-sisters who grew up in the city. The local sense of humour is legendary in Armenia — Gyumri jokes are a genre of their own.
Getting here from Yerevan takes about two hours by car or marshrutka along a good road through the Armenian highlands. There is also a slow but scenic train.