The Cascade and Cafesjian Center

A vast limestone stairway climbing the hillside above central Yerevan, built as a sweeping piece of Soviet urban theatre and finally completed in 2009 after a 38-year construction. The 572 steps (most people take the escalator running inside) lead up past terraces of fountains, gardens, and modern sculpture to a viewing platform that looks out across the city to Mount Ararat — on clear mornings, the view is one of the great urban panoramas of the Caucasus.

Inside the structure, the Cafesjian Center for the Arts runs galleries of contemporary art across multiple levels, with works by Botero, Chihuly, and Lynn Chadwick. The gardens at the base, with their oversized bronze figures, are free to wander; the indoor museum charges admission.

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A story
Construction of the Cascade began in 1971 and stalled for decades after the 1988 earthquake and the Soviet collapse. It was finally finished only in 2009, thanks to the Armenian-American businessman Gerard Cafesjian, who filled it with his sculpture collection — including pieces by Botero, Lynn Chadwick, and Barry Flanagan.