Experience the best of Gyumri

Gyumri stands on the Shirak plain in north-west Armenia, close to the Turkish border, at around 1,500 metres. It has been called Alexandropol and Leninakan in earlier eras. Its older centre, the Kumayri quarter, keeps streets of low houses built of dark volcanic stone, with carved balconies and courtyards, many repaired after the earthquake of 1988.

Vardanants Square is the main square, with the church of the Holy Saviour rebuilt after the quake. The Black Fortress, a nineteenth-century Russian military stronghold, stands on a rise above the town, and small museums, among them one of architecture and urban life, occupy old townhouses. Marmashen, a tenth-century monastery in a river gorge, lies a short drive to the north.

Gyumri is known across Armenia for its humour and its crafts, and for plain, hearty cooking: khorovats, grilled meat on skewers, thick soups, lavash bread and gata, a sweet round loaf, all of which suit the long, snowy winters of the high plain.