Lovers’ park opens in Yerevan

'Park connected with the arts'


Official opening will be on 17 October. It’s a former Pushkin park on Baghramyan Avenue, in downtown Yerevan. (For details of the fascinating history of Lovers’ park, click here)

Reconstruction works at Lovers’ park started in 2005, sponsored by Boghossian Foundation*, in collaboration with the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund. The design for the reconstruction of the new Lovers’ Park has been created by Pierre Rambach, a well known landscape architect based in Switzerland. “Japanese traditional landscaping has been a major source of inspiration for the Lover’s Park Landscaping and Design Project.”

*The Boghossian Foundation is headed by Jean Boghossian, based in Belgium and Albert Boghossian, based in Switzerland. For numerous years the Foundation has carried out large scale works both in Armenia (especially in the Shirak region) and Nagorno-Karabakh. In 2000 the Boghossian family established the annual “President of the Republic of Armenia Prize” aimed at encouraging the best specialists from different fields.

“This is not merely a reconstruction initiative; it is a renovation project which also insures the sustainable maintenance of the park.” (press release)

“Remodelling and construction works are being carried out on a large scale at the park. The entire area of the park is 1.6 hectares; 1.05 hectares of which will be covered in lawns. Seating in the park includes 300 meters of benching. The park will have two waterfalls, a lake, an amphitheatre with its more than 200 seats, a small open air café, sand paths for those who enjoy exercising and shaded pavilions for table games.”

There is also a promise of high quality sound system in the park. “The park is directly connected with the arts; starting with the stone compositions decorating every corner of the park and ending with the anticipated music festivals. The amphitheatre of the park will host musicians, who will deliver high-quality music to visitors.”

Not unimportant to notice that the park has free public toilets, with disabled access. Another important promise, which let’s hope will get materialised, is that this small cafe will remain the only such venue there, no other restaurants or cafes will be allowed, so that unlike other Yerevan parks this will remain truly a park.

Btw, we already have the first newlyweds of the Lovers’ park. “On October 4, a young newlywed couple asked permission to conduct their wedding photo session in the Park. The administration of the park invited them in. The staff congratulated the newlyweds on their wedding and also for being the first couple to take pictures of their memorable day in Lovers’ Park.”

I wonder, would this new park be an all-inclusive lovers’ park, or the definition of “love” will have its exclusion criteria?

Below is one of the past Public TV reports (in Armenian) on reconstruction works and facilities of the Lovers’ park (quality of the video clip uploaded on YouTube is poor).



*source of photo - Armenpress, via Tert.am

**Lovers' park websites:
http://pushkinpark.am
http://pushkinpark.com