May 29, 2011
Yerevan Metro was built in 1978 over 4km (2.5 miles) of tunnels, when the plans were redesigned so that the system would be opened as a full underground metro.
On 7 March 1981 the system was opened, becoming the eighth Soviet Metro system, with a first four station stage of 7.6 kilometers. Since then, the system has grown to a 12.1km (7.56 miles), 10 stations.
The engineering work was of such high quality that during the 1988 earthquake, which paralyzed the whole republic, although suffering some minor damage, the Metro managed to withstand the earthquake and continued to operate on the next day.
On 28 December 1999, the Metro was named after Karen Demirchyan, the man who was responsible for changing the status of the Rapid Tram system into becoming a Metro system.
Afterword we visited Independence station and from there, we went to Sasountsi Tavit station where his Statue was built in 1959, by Yervant Kochar. The statue was built by a copper and symbolized the heroism of our nation.
Then we went to General Antranig’s statue. Behind his statue there was the largest church St. Gregory Church was built in 2001 in honor of our 1700 years of Christianity.
We continued walking on Abovyan Street to Children’s Art Museum. This museum is the world only Children’s museum that displays all young artists’ paintings from the ages 3 years and up. We took the tour of the Museum and saw all the art works from all over the world children paintings.
After that we went to Ardavasd’s house for dinner.
By Sepahn Chiloyan