HISTORICAL BUILDINGS

Late 18th century

The house is located on 2nd Street of Kanaker, within the Khachatur Abovyan House-Museum complex.

It is the ancestral house of the Abovyan family, built in the late 18th century by Mr. Apov, the grandfather of the great Armenian enlightener, writer, and founder of modern Armenian literature and pedagogy, Khachatur Abovyan. Several generations of the Abovyan family lived here. In 1805, Khachatur Abovyan was born in this house.

The building was reconstructed and converted into a house-museum in 1938. The museum has been operating since 1939.

The house is a single-story structure with a rectangular plan, oriented north–south. It consists of three rooms (living room, tandoor room, and pantry) and a southern veranda. The roof is flat, supported by wooden beams. The walls are built of roughly dressed stone.

Restoration works were carried out in 1948, 1953, and 1964. During these works, the interior walls were plastered, the roof and foundations were reinforced, and the veranda was repaired (its entrance was closed and a new entrance was opened from the western façade, as shown in old photographs), among other works. These restoration efforts involved archaeologist and historian Morus Hasratyan, ethnographers Derenik Vardumyan and Vard Bdoyan, architect Liparit Sadoyan, literary scholar Ruben Zaryan, Abovyan specialist Pion Hakobyan, as well as Kh. Abovyan’s granddaughter Viktoria Abovyan.

In 1978, with the construction of a new museum building (architect Liparit Sadoyan), the paternal house was enclosed within a protective structure.

It was also renovated in 2005.

The Abovyan ancestral house hosted many prominent figures, including Friedrich Parrot, Hermann Abich, August von Haxthausen, Mikayel Nalbandyan, Stepanos Nazaryan, Raphael Patkanyan, Komitas, Nikoghayos Marr, Leo, Hovhannes Tumanyan, Askanaz Mravyan, Aghasi Khanjyan, and others.