In the vortex of modernization

Stroll instead of haggling. Since the modernization of the city, there has been a park on the site of the Ghantar market in Erwian

In 1923, the architect Alexander Tamanjan returned to Yerevan, the capital of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, to push forward the architectural reorganization of the city as designated chief engineer with great urban planning efforts. Using his 1924 master plan, Yerevan was significantly redesigned and modernized until his death in 1936 and beyond. Tamanjan was based on monumental neoclassicism, but also integrated genuinely Armenian elements, for example the significant use of the local pink or black tuff rock - not least for this reason Yerevan is called "the pink city" - as well as traditional Armenian motifs, ornaments and arcades.

However, many buildings that bore witness to Armenia's changeable history of rule and culture, which was due to its location between the Persian, Ottoman, Arab and Russian spheres of influence, had to give way: caravanserais, bazaars, bathhouses, historic adobe buildings as well as some older churches and mosques fell victim to the redesign.

The renewed interest in Armen's novel can be attributed in part to its dense, layered composition and stylistic artistry, as well as its contemporary relevance to the self-image of the Armenian capital 100 years ago.

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