Cafesjian Center For The Arts
Soviet-era stone staircase turned open-air museum, its terraces lined with bronze sculptures and fountains.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Cafesjian Center for the Arts in Yerevan traces a hillside staircase planned in the 1920s, abandoned twice, and left cracked and silent for over a decade after the 1988 earthquake and the Soviet collapse. It follows Gerard Cafesjian, a Brooklyn-born lawyer whose parents fled the Armenian genocide, from a career in legal publishing in Minnesota to pouring his fortune into finishing the ruined staircase as an art museum. You'll hear about the bronzes by Fernando Botero and other sculptors scattered along its terraces, and the glass collection tucked inside. Climb the escalators terrace by terrace and see how far up the stone the museum actually reaches.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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