A step back in time to a forgotten garden in Yerevan

Sometimes I roam around new areas and stumble into these old gardens. They're mostly within industrial areas, small parks that would've once been for some of the nearby factory workers. Though these days as Yerevan develops, these areas are mostly forgotten despite the more recent mega-structures of new apartment buildings being constructed nearby.  While these are mostly forgotten, you might see the odd person lingering around, usually elderly people that remember these locations as they were many decades before, when gardeners would've maintained the many shrubs and flowers, the beautiful fountains would've still operated under that scorching Armenian summer sun. Here they would've relaxed with their family, or friends in little huts as they play Nardi and Chess. Now, they mostly sit alone. I found this park on my way home after exploring another area not too far, photographing some of the older streets and finding Soviet mosaics.

It was difficult to find the exact sort of date that this park would've been created, usually you can get a rough idea based on the type of flooring and how much it has decayed, as well as the general design plan of the park. Some date as far back as the 50s, some have had a few changes and show signs of the 80s. This one felt like I had stepped into a renaissance painting. Or had stepped back in time and witnessed the fall of Pompeii. It didn't feature much Soviet aesthetics. The most telling sign of something Soviet appeared to have been a memorial building and relief dedicated to the Armenian people and displayed the names of those that had died in the Artsakh war from 1988 onward. Many dates going up until 1994. That meant that at least the very north of the park was created around the 90s. But that would've been a specific building and stairway that led to the park itself, not so much the park's features. As for those, all I could gather were two majorly burnt-out buildings that would've either been toilets or little shops in the past. Where visitors could've obtained either things like water, ice-cream, or cigarettes. 

The first thing I noticed was a large amount of overgrowth leading down a relatively thin path. I didn't think much of it at first, it's quite a common sight throughout the city. Many parks just aren't maintained and their growth results in areas that are mostly just ignored by the general population for being not particularly comfortable to be around. I walked down and noticed a man walking around on the phone, I didn't think much of it. I continued on, to which a series of statues opened up before me, lit beautifully under the midday sunlight. And the day was already one of the warmer and brighter ones. I felt that sun punching through once I walked out from beneath the shade of the overgrowth. The statues looked as dry as I felt. Though also somewhat covered in growth, little roses that had grown over the years, various vines and shrubbery that had taken over. Parts of some statues remained hidden, though their general condition was really good. It was the others that were on a wall overlooking another side of the park that were in worse off condition; some showing what would've been gestures of instrument playing. The instruments missing.

Others missed limbs entirely. Arms gone, parts of their faces, little details chipped off over the years. The entire part of the flooring around them had been removed, I couldn't tell whether this was general decay or part of an upcoming reconstruction that is to come. Two circular series of statues stood in the middle of this part of the park, though in the middle of those stood a much bigger fountain and statue. This is where I felt some of that confusion regarding the year of its creation, I just could not tell. The symbolism detailed something akin to Greek Gods. Again the theme of instruments was present. Though the fountain was not operational. On the sides stood two buildings that were destroyed for the most part and with a raw stench of cold and damp stone with decay and rubbish. These buildings also had large seating areas that overlooked the fountain as well as a large stage that had been mostly destroyed beyond its frame.

I walked around for a while, taking in the sights and feeling the atmosphere. It was one of the more sombre parks, the general feeling being quite sad, as if such beauty had been rejected in time, reclaimed by nature and the concept of beauty itself abandoned. I had never seen a park quite like this one before, but from the scenes below I had gathered, this was a park that was to receive some attention. To be rebuilt in some manner. Though a slow and painful process, and certainly to not capture the same tone it once had.