In 301 AD, Armenia became the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion. That decision, made 17 centuries ago, is literally set in stone.
Armenian monasteries are not listed ruins: they are living entities, with monks and ceremonies that ensure religious continuity. This continuity has withstood Arab, Mongol, and Soviet invasions without losing its thread. Geghard, partially carved into the living rock of a gorge, forty kilometers from Yerevan, possesses a stone acoustics that liturgical ceremonies transform into something unique.
Yerevan is the pink city. The name is no metaphor: the pink volcanic tuff, quarried from the mountains, was for centuries the preferred building material. It gives the capital a hue that shifts with the light of day and, in the late afternoon, with Mount Ararat as a backdrop, creates a scene that no travel guide can fully capture. The sacred peak remained on the Turkish side of the border after 1921, but the Armenians continue to call it their own.
Cognac is the most surprising aspect. Ararat, an Armenian brand produced since 1887 in the cellars of the Yerevan distillery, has a history that includes Winston Churchill receiving an annual shipment from Joseph Stalin during World War II. The French, protective of their appellations of origin, negotiated an agreement requiring Armenia to use the term “brandy” in European markets. In the country itself, it is called cognac. A tasting in one of the historic cellars, with oak barrels and guides who recount the past at a leisurely pace, is one of the region’s most unique experiences.
Noravank, two hours from Yerevan, in a gorge with red walls, features two medieval churches clinging to the rock, in a balance that erosion has not altered. Access to the upper chamber of one of them is via an exterior stone staircase without a handrail, which anyone climbing it realizes is a challenge. It’s worth every step. Lake Sevan, at an altitude of two thousand meters, on a plateau that time has restored to an austere beauty, has a late-afternoon light on the water that photographs like Iceland and smells of Armenian earth.
Noravank, Armenia
The Armenian alphabet was invented in 405 AD by the monk Mesrop Mashtots, with the aim of translating the Bible into the local language. The original characters are recognizable but illegible to any unprepared traveler, creating a sense of total immersion. Lavash, the thin bread baked in a clay oven that UNESCO inscribed on the Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2014, is made by women with a coordination that is, in itself, a choreography.
Source: Sapo
