SQUARES AND PARKS
Architect: Arshavir Minasyan
It is located in the area between Movses Khorenatsi,
Grigor Lusavorich, Beirut, and Zakyan streets, at the address Zakyan street,
13/2.
It was founded in March 1933. The author of the
project is architect Arshavir Minasyan, who also designed the project for the
park named after Ghukas Ghukasyan (now Victor Hambardzumyan).
Previously, this area housed the old Yerevan’s large
market, Ghantar, and the Gyurdji caravanserai with adjacent shops, stalls, and
other buildings.
In 1934, after the death of the Soviet statesman
Sergey Kirov, the park was named after him.
The park’s territory contains the bust of the twice
Hero of the USSR, Nelson Stepanyan (1913-1944) (1950, bronze, granite,
sculptor: Ara Sargsyan, architect: Grigor Aghabalyan), the grave and bust of
the first commander of the 89th Armenian division, Colonel Simon Zakiyan
(Zakyan, 1899-1942) (1957, bronze, granite, sculptor: Ara Harutyunyan,
architect: Sergey Nersisyan), and the bust of the friend of the Armenian
people, Lebanese poet, prose writer, and artist Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)
(2005, marble, basalt, sculptor: Levon Tokhmajyan).
During the Soviet years, the remains of the Hero of
the USSR, Major General Nikolai Novitsky (killed on 22.08.1945) were also
buried in the children’s park. During the years of independence, his remains
were transferred and reburied in the military pantheon of the central cemetery
of the Erebuni district.
In 2021, during the construction of a cafe by the “Saturna
A” company in the northeastern part of the park (Zakyan-Khorenatsi
intersection, in front of the “Shirak” hotel), archaeological layers were
discovered. In December of the same year, as a result of the rescue excavations
carried out by the “Scientific Research Center of
Historical and Cultural Heritage” SNCO, the remains of brick and tuff
structures dated to the second half of the 19th - first decades of the 20th
centuries, a section of the tuff water supply system, and various ceramic,
glass, and metal objects, animal bones, and goods of French, British, Russian,
and Persian production were discovered. The excavations testify that during the
specified period, Yerevan was a center of transit trade, where the East and the
West, the North and the South intersected.
The Children’s Park is one of the favorite places for rest for both adults and children of Yerevan, with its well-groomed playgrounds, paths, and carousels, where various events have been and are still held.
“Scientific
Research Centre of Historical and Cultural Heritage” SNCO
