Of all the lands straddling east and west, the nation of Armenia is perhaps least like a gateway and most like a frontier. ‘Unique’ is a lazy and unenlightening epithet with which to characterise distant lands, but Armenia, both ancient and new, both Asian and European, both a melting-pot and defiantly individual, is fully deserving of the description.

Its long and tenacious history is one of frequent tragedy and renewal. At its apogee in the first century BC, Armenia stretched from the Mediterranean to the Caspian, and almost to the Black Sea. For the next three centuries, however, Armenia would suffer conquest and reconquest as the Romans and the Parthians traded blows in the southern Caucasus, with intermittent periods of self-rule keeping the flame of independence alive.

It was in large part to keep themselves distinct from the two vast empires on either hand that the Armenians adopted the new religion of Christianity in AD 301, developing a new alphabet a hundred years after that. These two markers of Armenian identity survived domination by Byzantines, Arabs, Mongols, Turks and Russians, as did many spectacular religious buildings, which were built to withstand not just invasions but earthquakes too.

Armenia’s sacred architecture was a greater influence on mediaeval Europe than is commonly assumed, after its round towers and cross-plans were noted by returning crusaders. Thick-walled, built from tuff or basalt, and housing a particularly severe strain of eastern Christianity, there is a resplendent austerity about these monasteries which is only heightened by their frequently spectacular natural surroundings.
Many of the finest, including the rock-hewn Geghard and the UNESCO world heritage site of Echmiadzin, are easily visited from the capital, Yerevan. And while calling Yerevan the most sensitively-remodelled of all Soviet cities may sound like damnation with the faintest praise imaginable, today it is attractive and confident, its proliferation of cafés, galleries and public spaces making it a truly pleasant place to spend time. In the north of the country are two more UNESCO-listed monasteries, at Sanahin and Haghpat, and detailed thirteenth-century frescoes at Akhtala.

Meanwhile Yerevanis live, work and socialise in the literal and metaphorical shadow of Ararat, still Armenia’s most emotive symbol despite now being on Turkish land. Like the resurgent Christianity in the monasteries, like the native alphabet, the land itself is not just a reminder of Armenia’s past but a constant and relevant presence for today.

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