Republic Square
The heart of Yerevan, and indeed Armenia. It is unavoidable and surrounded by government buildings, hotels, museums and fountains.
Erebuni fort.
The fortress Erebuni on Arin-berd Hillis reached either by car from Vokzalnaya Square along Bakvi and Erebuni streets, or by bus No. 15, trolleybuses Nos. 2 and 4 and trains Nos. 7 and 8. The fortress was erected by the Urartu king Argishti I in 782 B.C.
Churches
Katoghike
The oldest surviving church in Yerevan, the Katoghike, stands nestled in a courtyard on the W side of Abovian Street just above Sayat Nova Blvd. Its current form dates to 1936, when the old cathedral church of Yerevan, a substantial but undistinguished basilica rebuilt in 1693/4, was slated for destruction in the name of urban renewal. The archaeologists won a modest concession from Stalin's architects, that they could oversee the dismantling and record the inscriptions and architectural fragments incorporated in the rubble walls. Lo and behold, as the walls came down it became clear that the central apse, the sanctuary, was in fact an almost intact small Astvatsatsin church with inscriptions from the 13th century. Public and scientific outcry won the newly discovered church a reprieve, and since independence it has resumed its religious function, albeit invisibly from the main streets. In front of the church is a small collection of khachkar and other sculpted fragments from the core of the destroyed basilica.
Zoravar Church
Dating from 1693 (funded by the wealthy Hoja Panos) and rebuilt at various times it sits near the site of the tomb/shrine of S. Ananias the Apostle.
Cathedral
The enormous Grigor Lusavorich National Cathedral is being constructed across from Kino Russia on Tigran Mets Blvd. It will house a museum documenting the history of Armenian Christianity, and be completed by 2001.
