Armenian traditional costumes with their stable characteristic features, going deep into the centuries, are a specific indication of the origins, development and historical fate of the Armenian people and reflect their cultural identity and certain peculiarities of national temperament. [...]

In 1639, Armenia was divided between the Ottoman Turkey and Persia. Liberation ideas were ripening in Armenia and in the Armenian communities, ruined due to the Turkish-Persian wars. Programs of national liberation were elaborated (I. Ori, H. Emin, Sh. Shahamirian, H. Arghutian). Attempt [...]

In ancient times, Cilicia was mainly inhabited by the Armenians, Assyrians, Jews and Greeks. In the 10th century, the Armenian population became so dense that a new episcopal diocese of the Armenian Church was founded in Tarson. In 1080, Prince Ruben I, who settled in Mountainous Cilicia [...]

Textiles, carpets, as well as objects of copper, stone, wood and faïence, prevail in the Armenian applied arts of the 15th-19th centuries. Both in their historical native land and in distant communities, Armenian craftsmen manifested surprising faithfulness to the sources of ancient and [...]

The Exhibition presents valuable specimens of pottery made in Dvin and Ani from the 9th to the 13th centuries. Having preserved their links with the origins that go deep into the millennia, these ceramic objects manifest the uniform principles and tendencies, found in the artistic thinki [...]

Ani was first mentioned by the 5th-century Armenian historians Yeghishé and Ghazar Parpetsi. In 885, Armenia’s independent statehood was restored, and Ashot I Bagratid was proclaimed king of the Armenians. Ani became the capital of Armenia in 961. Worship structures brought glory and rec [...]

Dvin was one of the earliest settlements of the Armenian Highland as far back as the 3rd millennium BC. In the 5th century, Dvin was the royal domain of the Armenian Arsacid kings and the Holy See of the Armenian Church. From the beginning of the 8th century, during the Arab rule, Dvin w [...]

The Exhibition includes a selection of Old Eastern, Greek and Roman maps, Christian and Islamic maps of the Early and Late Middle Ages from the world cartographic heritage. In all selected maps, Armenia has been marked as a territorial entity with its name, mountains, rivers and towns. T [...]

The most significant branch in Armenian culture of this period was sculpture, the origins of which bear the cultural traditions of the Armenian Highland, Ancient Near East and Ancient Greece. The Cross, the main symbol of the new faith, Bible and Gospel narratives and Armenian legends on [...]

The 4th century marked an important historical event in the life of the Armenian people. In 301, under King Trdat III, Christianity was proclaimed state religion. Armenia became the first country to have officially adopted Christianity. In 303, the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the spi [...]