Getting around Armenia

From ancient times, Armenians have cherished their artistic traditions, which reflect a unique culture and landscape.

Literature has always played a vital role in Armenia's cultural and national identity. Before the Armenian alphabet was developed in the 5th century, Armenian tales were passed down by oral tradition and written in foreign languages. The Armenians were involved in literature and many art forms at a very early point in their civilization. Their metalworking and architecture have been traced back to about 1000 BC. The work in gold and bronze was high quality. In the early Christian era, a series of cathedrals were adapted to classical church architecture.

Armenian painters in Cilicia enriched Byzantine and Western formulas with their unique use of colour and inclusion of Oriental themes. Armenian painting blossomed in the 19th century. Artists from that period, such as the portrait painter Hakob Hovnatanian and the seascape artist Ivan Aivazovsky, continue to enjoy international reputation. In the 20th century, Martiros Saryan captured nature's essence in a new light, and Arshile Gorky greatly influenced a generation of young American artists in New York, while Carzou and Jansem found fame and fortune painting in France.

Armenian manuscripts, beautifully illuminated with miniatures, combine Armenia's literary and illustrative traditions. Christian culture and the invention of the Armenian alphabet by Mesrop Mashtots, so thoroughly expressive of the language that it has withstood the centuries without any essential changes, gave new stimuli to the development of unique cultural traditions. There is no better place to view this literary and artistic history than Yerevan's unique Matenadaran (Institute of Ancient Manuscripts), which houses an extraordinary collection of 14,000 complete manuscripts, fragments and miniatures. The oldest parchments date back to the fifth and sixth centuries. The majority of manuscripts are research works of ancient scholars on theology, astronomy, astrology, alchemy, geography, history, medicine, poetry and music.

Armenian is a complex and beautiful language. It has been continuously used for more than 1500 years as it was first created, borrowing traces of words and expressions from Hindu, Persian, Arabic, Greek and Latin along the way.

Armenian music has a long history, and 'sharakans,' liturgies and sacred music are purely Armenian, and artistically priceless. Komitas is perhaps the most famous Armenian composer however, creating 'khazes,' the Armenian form of musical notation. He also wrote many religious and national songs before eventually going mad from his experiences during the 1915 Genocide of the Armenians living within the then Ottoman Empire.

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