GIUMRI (Gyumri) “The Anabasis” As Did the Greek Historian GIUMRI (“Gyumri”) Copper Bronze Age Excavations Dug As Recently Herodotus Writing of the Area in His 4Th C
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® TourArmenia Travel Guide GIUMRI (Gyumri) “The Anabasis” as did the Greek historian GIUMRI (“Gyumri”) Copper Bronze Age Excavations dug as recently Herodotus writing of the area in his 4th c. ¶ÛáõÙñÇ INTRODUCTION as in 2005 have uncovered 1500-900 BCE History. The Anabasis recounted the epic journey After surviving gravesites in the city of Giumri itself, inside the by Xenophon and the “ten thousand” who Yerevan’s rampant “Black Fort” (South Tower). marched through Armenia en route to the Black growth and swirling Sea in 401 BCE, describing part of the territory By Rick Ney dust, you will find In Giumri, prehistoric excavations include the the marched Gumnias, or current Giumri. Maps & Graphics by Rafael Torossian welcome respite and South Tower (Black Fortress), Cherkezi Dzor, the Edited by Bella Karapetian warm hospitality in area of poultry farm, Vardbagh & the Turbaza. Giumri. The capital of Armenia during the Kumaiyri – Urartu, Greek & Roman Giumri The mythical beginning of Giumri is recorded by Russian era (1821- th 1918), Old Kumaiyri, the 5 c historian Movses Khorenatsi, who present day Giumri, is recounted that the founder of the Armenian a living museum of nation, Haik, sent his grandson Aramis with all grand architecture and his family, to a fertile land above Mt. Aragats, joie de vivre, a place of where the waters flowed. The place he resided parks and promenades, its distinct red and black was called Shirak after him. The place was called tufa buildings a hallmark of a bygone age, Kumaiyri. Armenia’s Belle Époque. Giumri was enriched as an important outpost of the Russian Empire, and fortunes were made catering to the Tsars and spent on opulent dwellings and public buildings. Most of these buildings have survived, over 1000 There are 3 parts to the Shirak/Giumri Guide, forming the largest collection of intact historic The Medieval Era each is a separate PDF: buildings in the Caucasus. With the advent of Christianity, Gregori 1. Shirak Region (Separate PDF) It is just now that Giumri has re-emerged as a Lousavoritch is known to have established 2. Giumri (This File) serious destination. Once Armenia’s Second City, churches in Kumaiyri, on the ruins of pagan 3. Giumri Walking Tours (Separate PDF) with a population of around 250,000, the city temples he had torn down. Among these are the sites of the current S. N’shan and Yot Verk (7 TABLE OF CONTENTS suffered tremendous loss in the 1988 earthquake wounds) churches in the city. which immediately killed 24,000 people and GIUMRI (below) devastated much of the Soviet style ‘new city’. Kumaiyri was also mentioned by the 8th c. CE Map of Giumri (p. 4) Most of the old center survived, and a growing writer Ghevond Yeretz (Leon the Priest) writing of Map of Old Center (p. 5) economy and cultural life have rejuvenated much the city in relation with the rebellion against the of the city (though it must now bow to Vanadzor Arab Umayyad and then Abbasid dynasties. NAVIGATING THE CITY for bragging rights as second most populated city The historical beginning of Giumri starts with WALKING TOURS (p. 6) in Armenia) and make this a must-see Assyrian descriptions of the area and a cuneiform Kumaiyri remained a backwater during the heady destination. You may have to start your trip in inscription for the Urartian King Argishti I (8th c days of Bagratuni, Kamsarakan, Pahlavuni and SIGHTS (p. 6) Yerevan, but for some clean air, real history, BCE), which can still be found on a mount at Orbelian rule (8th-13th cc), as the great city of MONUMENTS & PARKS lively humor and warm hospitality, visit Giumri. Vahramaberd Village (Marmashen), near Giumri. Ani and the regional capital of Kars took focus MUSEUMS The inscription reads "By the Glory of Khaldi, the away from the small town of Kumaiyri. Much of THE ARTS HISTORY god Argishti says: I invaded the land of the Yeriakhi tribe, invaded Irdaniuni city up to Giumri’s fascination and later attempts to THEATRE Giumri’s history is contemporary to that of recapture Ani’s glory days is traced to this time, FILM Yerevan’s though the city to the south has Ishkikulu land". It further refers to the people of and to the people who descended from these two ART GALLERIES/MUSEUMS claimed the title of oldest in the country. Truth Kuliaini, the city’s first name. great medieval cities, especially in the 19th c as CHURCHES be told, though, Giumri’s is just as old, and may Urartian artifacts in Giumri include fragments of Turkish pogroms and mass murders accelerated even be older than its hot cousin, its location in in Western Armenia, forcing hundreds of PRACTICALITIES (p. 11) the upper elevations making inhabitation belts and clay found on the grounds of the thousands of Armenian descendants o emigrate In And Out preferable in the Stone Age to its still smoldering hospital on Shirakatsi Street in Giumri (known as to the city, giving birth under Tsarist protection to Around cousin to the south. White hospital among Giumretsis). Telman Khachaturian made the excavation. These a new Golden Age in the country, and Giumri. Tour Agencies, Guides findings are considered to be casual and currently Communication Evidence of developed human activity and the Empire City The most remarkable period of Maps, Money, Film, Clinics, Etc. first large settlement in Giumri (on the hills to the are preserved in the National Museum of History. development was during the 19th c. when Shirak Overnight (p. 13) west of the modern city, around Sev Ghul or The Greek historian and military leader Xenophon became a part of the Russia Empire, and Food & Drink (p. 13) Black Tower) is placed to around 5000 BCE, (ca. 430-355) mentions Kumaiyri in his book, Kumaiyri its regional center. The area was about the same time as that to the south. Shirak Marz: Giumri: page 1 of 15 - TourArmenia © 2007 Rick Ney ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - www.TACentral.com ® TourArmenia Travel Guide absorbed into the Empire in 1804, during the first Following the collapse of the Russian Empire and Before and After Russo-Persian war. The Russian period initiated a In 1899, the Tbilisi-Alexandropol, later the the short-lived First Republic in 1918-1920, the period of tremendous growth and development Alexandropol-Yerevan-Persia railways made Red Army reentered the area through Lori and Most Giumretsis mark their lives by “Before the for the city. A heretofore-feudal society was Giumri/Alexandropol a major point on the line, retook Alexandropol for the Soviet Union, Earthquake” and “After the earthquake,” even the pushed into the industrial revolution, creating an further feeding its growth. The city reached an declaring a Soviet Republic in 1921. young born after 1988 still recounting the epic extraordinarily rich and educated class of citizens, extraordinary level of sophistication in design, struggles of those horrific times as if they were their a new Golden Age. Chosen for its strategic with over 1000 surviving samples of the period as Soviet Period own. Even now they cannot go forward ion their th location along the Akhurian Valley, Kumaiyri held testament. A love of culture also ensued, with If Giumri’s growth in the 19 c was impressive, lives without knowing that they replace someone a huge fortress still used by Russian soldiers art galleries, design firms, theatres and musical that of the Soviet period was extraordinary, if who was lost, someone who died, in ‘the guarding the Armenian frontier. Military entertainments imported from Russia and Europe. never as architecturally beautiful. Both the earthquake’. barracks established in the city include Poligons, population and heavy industrialization increased Severski and Kazachi Posts, sites of several At the end of 19th century Alexandropol was 8-fold within the next forty years. It is hard to imagine how horrible the events of 1988 prehistoric excavations. equal in importance to was except if you lived through it, and even the most Tbilisi and Baku, these In 1924 the city was renamed graphic description of bodies crushed by the weight By 1837 the city had grown enough it was cities also Armenian Leninakan in memory of the of three floors of apartments, or those surviving the granted an imperial visit by the Russian Czar centers in the Caucasus. leader of the Russian tremors only to succumb the subzero temperatures Nicholas I, who was said to have renamed the Giumri’s citizens Revolution on Lenin's death. of the worst winter in memory, can conjure the true town Alexandropol after his wife, Alexandra (“Giumretsi”) delight in With the decision to make horror of the event. Still, some images survive, Feodorovna. However others note the name was this fact, proud of a time Yerevan the new capital, most searing my imagination with their awful details. actually derived from the Russian Saint Alexandra when their city dwarfed of the money in the republic One friend told me one of her worst visions of the (also the name of the church in the Alexandropol the then village of went to that city and its grand earthquake came afterwards, as the shock wore off Fortress in the city). The city was also referred to Yerevan, which was its designs for the new face of and people began to comb the city for lost relatives as ‘Alekpol’ in local dialect. In 1840 Giumri was backwater town, much as Soviet Armenia. Considered and friends. She came with her uncle to the square formally granted status as a city, and in 1850 it Giumri once was for Ani. a military strongpoint and so a nd in front of the old Univermag, which had collapsed in became the capital of the “Alexandropol Region of At a time when Yerevan closed city, Giumri fell into 2 the earthquake (and is now a new college and bank), the Caucasus State of Yerevan”.