HISTORICAL BUILDINGS

1940, 1960

State index: 1.6.67

1940, architects: Mikayel Mazmanyan, Hovhannes Margaryan

1960, architects: Mikayel Mazmanyan, Hovhannes Margaryan, Sergey Nersisyan

It is one of the largest printing complexes in Yerevan, constructed in the district bounded by Koryun, Teryan, Isahakyan and G. Kochar streets (address: 91th Teryan St., 28th Isahakyan St., 4th G. Kochar St.). In the 30s of the XX century “Haypethrat” publishing house and printing house was operating in the building of the House of Culture. Therefore, in 1934 an imperative was set to have a complex of press palace, where the publishing and printing activities and all institutions related to them must be concentrated; the complex should have had a large hall, library and creative workshops.

In 1935, a competition was announced for the Yerevan publishing house (book palace), and between two projects presented (1. project of architects Mikael Mazmanyan and Hovhannes Margaryan, 2. project of Semyon Pen from Moscow, specialized in the field of designing polygraphic structures) the first one was selected. Construction launched in 1936. The two-storey, 100-meter-long section of Teryan Street, with a columned façade rising on a powerful wall basis and the main entrance, was completed in 1940. The remaining parts, including the polygraphists’ club (at the corner of Isahakyan and Kochar streets), were built in 1960. The authors of the project were architects M. Mazmanyan, H. Margaryan and S. Nersisyan. Initially, on the side of the Koryun Street, there was built a passage through an open colonnade to the inner yard of the complex.

In 1965, that colonnade was demolished and a 9-storey administrative building was built in its place. The dimension on the side of Isahakyan Street is four-storey, and the architectural forms are simpler. The lateral sides are underlined by open peristyles. The dimension of the Kochar Street has three floors. In the palace complex had been operating “Haypethrat”, “Soviet Writer”, “Arevik”, “Nairi”, “Hayastan” publishing houses, “Haygirk”, the State Committee for Press Affairs, Publishing and Book Sales of the Armenian SSR, the regional committee of CPA Myasnikyan.

The Yerevan Drama Theater organized in the section of the Polygraph Club was founded in 1967, as a theater-studio of the Armenian Theater Company under the leadership of the National Actor of the USSR Hrachya Ghaplanyan. The opening took place in 1969 with the performance of Tumanyan’s “Anush” poem. On the section of the Teryan Street, on the site of today”s “Yerevan Tavern”, there was a polygraph factory, where 13 volumes of the “Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia” and many other books were printed. The internal spaces, especially the lobbies, have been modified multiple times and have lost their original exterior. Tuff, basalt and cement plaster were used as building materials. In 1928-1935, a famous poet Yeghishe Charents worked in “Hayastan” publishing house.

In 1965, a commemorative board was installed on the side of Teryan street. (architect: Levon Eloyan). In 1997, a commemorative board with the same content was installed on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Charents. In front of the Drama theater building, on the Isahakyan Street, is installed a monument to the founder of Armenian printing, Hakob Meghapart (1987, sculptor: Khachatur Iskandaryan, State index: 1.6.67.2), and on the Kochar Street, Yervand Kochar’s “Allegory” (“Worker and collective farm”) sculpture (1956, partially restored and moved from the inner courtyard, 2017, State index: 1.6.67.1). The Book Palace is one of the characteristic structures of early Soviet-Armenian architecture of the 1930s, when new architectural values were created according to the forms and themes of traditional national architecture. There are classical-traditional and construction solutions characteristic of the 1920s in the Book Palace. 

“Scientific Research Centre of Historical and Cultural Heritage” SNCO

Yerevan Municipality