Tsitsernakaberd
Located in Tsitsernakaberd (Swallow’s Fortress) Park. Its trees, planted on what was waste ground in the middle of the ‘fifties, now form a dense wood. On the hill’s summit stands the memorial complex to the victims of the 1915 Genocide, designed by architects Artur Tarkhanyan and Sashur Kalashyan and artist Ovannes Khachatryan. On April 24, the anniversary of the start of the bloody slaughter, hundreds of thousands of local residents gather here in sorrowful silence.
The monument has two sections: massive basalt slabs bending in grief over an eternal flame, and a pointed mast rising high, symbolising the rebirth of the Armenian people.
Complex at Tsitsernakaberd
MONUMENT, MUSEUM AND RESEARCH COMPLEX AT TSITSERNAKABERD
Several freestanding architectural & sculptural works are located in a large park on a hill, which also houses other cultural and social building complexes.
The specific monument consists of an underground museum with library & archive sections; an axial path leading to the central area of the monument that is paralleled with a 100 meters by 3 meters basal wall with inscriptions of the names of the regions, towns and villages of Historic Western Armenia (the regions where the tragedy occurred). The central memorial structures consist of a circular area that shelters the eternal flame memorizing all the victims of the Tragedy; it stands as the Memorial Sanctuary. The eternal flame is housed under 12 tall, inward- leaning basalt slabs forming a circle. The shape of these walls simulates traditional Armenian khatchkars. The level of the floor of the Monument is set at one and a half meters lower than the walkway.
An arrow-shaped stele of granite, 44 meters high, reaches to the sky, symbolizing the survival and spiritual rebirth of the Armenian people. Partly split vertically by a deep crevice, this tower symbolizes the tragic and violent dispersion of the Armenian people, and at the same time, expresses the unity of the Armenian people. The museum and archival area that was built 30 years later, is on the same hill. It houses several large exhibitions, administrative, engineering and technical spaces. The exhibition space is over 1,000 square meters. It occupies three indoor halls and one outdoor hall and a hallway. A basalt stone eight meters long and three meters wide lies on the floor of the outdoor hall, symbolizing the eternal memory of the victims of the Tragedy and the unity of the Armenian people spread throughout the world. It also expresses the struggle between good and evil, light and darkness.
Construction on the monument began in 1966 and the opening ceremony was on November 29, 1967. The dedication date was April 24, 1968.