Kond — the oldest district of Yerevan

Kond is the oldest district of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. And it's not the kind of Old Town with luxurious houses, market squares, cafes and little shops that we are used to seeing in many European cities. Quite the opposite — you might think time stopped here long ago, if it weren't for the modernly dressed people and modern utilities. Shabby, dilapidated, chaotically built little houses, patched up here and there and clumsily repaired, look more like a place long forgotten and neglected by everyone. But surprisingly, people live here — and they are very friendly and hospitable. The buildings in Kond are made from whatever materials were at hand, the cheapest ones. The thing is, once upon a time, to get a residence permit a city dweller had to prove that he had a house he lived in. For a long time Kond was one of the three districts of the city, back when Eastern Armenia was part of the Persian Empire, and that's why in Kond you can see the remains of Persian mosques. The most amazing thing here is the Thapha Bashi Mosque, built in 1687. In 1915 several Armenian families who had fled the genocide settled here. In 1988 the dome collapsed in an earthquake, but people still live in the half-ruined building. Only some walls 1.5 meters thick and parts of the roof have survived from the mosque to this day, and you can also see beautiful Persian ornamentation here. The oldest surviving building in the Kond district is the Church of Surb Hovhannes Mkrtich, built in 670 AD. A documentary film about this district, "Kond", was made by Harutyun Khachatryan. On one of the colorful streets of Kond there is a small cafe right in a local resident's house. Here you can drink freshly squeezed juices, coffee, wine, tea, and have a snack.