HISTORICAL BUILDINGS

1876, late 19th century – early 20th century

The building is located on Hanrapetutyun Street. It consists of two adjoining volumes, large and small, which differ from one another in their floor-plan configuration, volumetric-spatial composition, and the decorative treatment of their façades and interiors.

In 1853, the Yerevan City Council leased the small earthen house of Haji Abbas Kalbalay Abdu Husein-oglu for a period of 25 years, paying an annual rent of 600 rubles. The building consisted of nine rooms, two entrance halls, and a woodshed.

In 1876, the earthen structure was demolished and replaced by the present small, single-story, low-rise annex built of black tuff, which served as the office of the Persian Consul (1876–1920).

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the small annex was joined by the large two-story building of the Provincial Administration, designed by Vasily Mirzoyan and constructed of orange tuff (to the left), while von der Nonne’s revenue houses were located on the right.

After the establishment of Soviet rule in Armenia, the premises were assigned to the Armenian Relief Committee.

From 1924, the building housed an evening higher party school. In 1928, architect Alexander Tamanyan commissioned a magnificent chandelier in Italy, which remains suspended from the annex ceiling to this day. For about eighteen years, the premises served as the residence of the military prosecutor, after which they remained vacant for several years.

In 1964, the property was allocated to the newly established Armenian Society for the Protection of Historical Monuments (later reorganized as a federation; since 2020, the “Bnorran” Armenian Society for the Protection of Historical Monuments). For decades, the annex served as the office of the society’s chairman.

The Provincial Administration Building is a large two-story structure with a rectangular floor plan. The rooms are arranged along a corridor. It is connected to the annex through an entrance opening on the right side of the corridor.

The small consular annex, also rectangular in plan, consists of a single room and two niches.

Unlike the restrained decorative design of the main building, the decorative treatment of the annex façade is unique among the architectural monuments of late 19th and early 20th-century Yerevan. The principal artistic motif is a carved rosette above the paired windows, ornamented with interlacing decorative patterns. The interior is adorned with mirror-glass stalactite decorations and wall paintings. The latter were executed by Armenian craftsmen, combining Armenian and Persian ornamental motifs. They were restored in 1949, 1974, and 2016.

The load-bearing walls are built of tuff masonry laid in mortar. The main two-story volume is constructed of orange tuff, while the annex is built of black tuff. The street-facing façades are faced with finely dressed stone. The ceilings are flat and made of wood. The roof is pitched.