Old Erivan

Старый Эривань
Հին Երեւան

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This album of early 20th century Tsarist-era postcards portraying Yerevan is an ongoing project for me. It is largely inspired by the recent reprint of the Yervand Shahaziz book titled "Old Yerevan." Through this album, I hope to celebrate the city's past, which has been continually destroyed and redeveloped. Indeed, few of structures or neighborhoods portrayed here from the Tsarist  period survived the Soviet period, and more have been destroyed or converted since 1991. 

These contemporary postcards, most of which have captions(in pre-reform Russian and French) and numerical markings in red, symbolize a transition the town from Persian to Russian ownership. On one side, many of the postcards portray the older Persian constructions and Oriental flavor of the town, such as the city fortress, khan's palace, mosques, bazaars, arched bridges and primitive houses that once littered the landscape. And, on the other side, the newer Russian additions upon the town include a Russian Orthodox cathedral, houses in a 19th century neoclassical style, tramways, train stations and so forth. The two images are a stark contrast to one another, and at times seem to be in conflict with one another as most of the older constructions are in a state of disrepair, crumbling and primitive in contrast to the clean-cut lines of Russian era construction. 

Most of the images here have been found on the internet, and are largely limited to images I find uncommon, interesting, curious and of high enough resolution. If you right-click to view image in Mozilla, most of the images will be opened on a seperate page of the original resolution I found them on the internet, which is higher than what you see on this page.

1. The Sardar's Palace (Exterior). Present site of the Yerevan Ararat Wine Factory.
2. The Sardar's Palace (Interior)
3. Astafief Street. Present-day Abovian Street.
4. Bazaar Square. Notice the Blue Mosque (?) in the background. 

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