Black Fortress

If you keep walking through the park towards the western alley of Gyumri you will get to a beautiful place where a white statue of Greek style will greet you. Here you can enjoy the views of Black Fortress, the Statue Mother Armenia and Shirak stadium.

The big, round, black fortress on the top of the hill overlooking Gyumri is a good spot to admire the view of the city. It once protected the Russian Empire from the Ottoman Empire. This building made of black tuff is the southern castle of ancient Alexandrapol fortress. The fortress got its name because of the black tuff it is built with. This is a one floor fortress with two protection entrenchments to the right and left sides of the main entrance. The entrenchments were used to be filled with water for protecting the fortress. The fortress’ function was to protect the Russian borders from Persian and Turkish troops. The excavations around the area of the fortress uncovered many artifacts from 7th century and even older.

The building is a private property and is being renovated as a large concert hall. You can see the reconstruction and new plan images in the stop gallery.