Church · Ptghni, Abovyan, Kotayk
Ptghnavank
Պտղնիի տաճար · Ptghni Monastery · Ptghni Church
The roofless shell of a 6th–7th-century domed hall church in the middle of Ptghni village, just north of Yerevan, with carved window frames and a relief of a lion beneath a palm tree.
Where it is
40.2550, 44.5841
Why go
Only parts of Ptghnavank stand. The north wall survives complete, much of the south wall and part of the eastern dome-bearing arch remain, and the west wall has almost gone, leaving the interior open to the sky. Look for vegetal and geometric ornament around the windows and an inscription naming Manvel Amatuni. Conservation work took place in 1939–1940, 1959 and 1978. Houses surround the ruin rather than open landscape, so this is a specialist's stop, best for travellers interested in early Armenian church architecture who are already in Yerevan.
Near Ptghnavank
Monument
Mother Armenia Monument
The 22-metre copper statue of a woman holding a sheathed sword, raised in 1967 in Victory Park on high ground above central Yerevan, on a pedestal first built for a statue of Stalin.
8 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Museum
Matenadaran
Yerevan's research institute of ancient manuscripts on Mashtots Avenue, holding about 20,000 manuscripts in Armenian and other languages, with a museum in its 1945–1959 building.
9 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Museum
Aram Khachaturian House-Museum
The Yerevan house the Soviet Armenian government gave the composer Aram Khachaturian in 1945, kept unaltered beside a museum wing that displays his piano, manuscripts, awards and personal belongings.
9 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Monument
Charents Arch
A memorial arch near Voghjaberd on the way to Garni, built in 1957 to a design by architect Rafael Israyelyan and dedicated to the poet Yeghishe Charents, looking out towards Mount Ararat.
10 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ