Where to Stay in Abovyan, Kotayk

What is Abovyan known for?

Built in the last century on the Kotayk highlands north of Yerevan, it grew as an industrial town of the Soviet years, yet it stands beside the old village of Elar, whose small stone churches go back to the early days of Armenian Christianity. The mountains ring the plateau. New town and old churches mark it.

What are the main landmarks in Abovyan?

The old churches of Elar stand at the edge of Abovyan. The small medieval stone chapels, worn by the ages, rise among the trees, the mark of the town, from the old village. New monuments fill the squares.

The Soviet-era friendship monument and the memorials to the writer Abovian and the war dead mark the modern streets around Elar.

What is the history of Abovyan?

Abovyan is a new town beside a very old one. On the plateau north of Yerevan stood the ancient village of Elar, where small stone churches and chapels went back to the early Christian ages of Armenia. Then a new town rose beside it.

In the nineteen-sixties the Soviets laid out a planned industrial town on the highland, named for the writer Khachatur Abovian, and factories and apartment blocks spread across the plain. The town grew by industry and the road. Works and plants drew people from the countryside, and Abovyan became a busy satellite of the capital on the highway east.

The old village kept its shrines through it all. Among the new streets the medieval churches of Elar still stood, and the town raised memorials to its writer and to the lost of the wars. The old churches still watch the plateau.

Abovyan keeps its factories and its shrines on the Kotayk highland.

Where is Abovyan?

Abovyan lies on the Kotayk plateau north of Yerevan in central Armenia. The town sits on a high volcanic upland, ringed by mountains and the cone of Mount Ara, on the road that climbs east toward Lake Sevan. Bare highlands rise around.

The plateau rolls away to the peaks.

What is the climate of Abovyan?

Abovyan has a dry highland climate. Warm, dry summers cross the plateau, and the winters turn cold with hard frost and snow, sharper for the height of the land, with clear air much of the year. Snow lies on the mountains in winter.

The upland air stays cool and thin.

How do you get to Abovyan?

Abovyan lies just north of Yerevan on the road to Lake Sevan. The highway and the railway run to it from the capital and climb on toward Sevan and the north, past the town. Bus services run out from Abovyan to the highland towns nearby.

Most arrive by road from Yerevan.