Museums and Galleries

The Vanadzor Fine Arts Museum is a must-visit for every guest of the city for it gives a deep insight into the art life of the region. Founded as a branch of the National Gallery of Armenia in 1974, the museum houses over 1700 artworks.

Its collection includes paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings by Armenian artists, among them Yervand Kochar, Rudolf Khachatryan, Armine Kalents, Ara and Seda Bekaryans, Lavinia Bazhbeuk-Melikyan, Eduard Kharazyan, and many others. The permanent exhibition of the Vanadzor Fine Arts Museum museum occupies three floors.

The museum also serves educational purposes and provides a research environment for students and artists. Numerous lectures and workshops on art history and art criticism are held here on the regular.

Operating hours:
Tue-Sat: 10 am – 6 pm
Sun-Mon: CLOSED

Stepan Zoryan, a native of Vanadzor, was a Soviet Armenian writer who wrote about rural Armenian, its social problems and process of sovietization. The house-museum, opened in 1990 in the writer’s summer house, is located in the old quarters of Vanadzor.

The building, as well as the museum, was a project implemented by writer’s sons Levon and Karen Zoryans. Zoryan’s life and activities were closely tied to the Lori region, Tbilisi, and Yerevan. The museum introduces Stepan Zoryan’s early life in Old Vanadzor, the writer’s legacy, his career, and public activities. Today, the museum is also an active cultural and literary center of Vanadzor.

Operating hours:
Tue-Sat: 10 am – 6:30 pm
Sun-Mon: Closed

Located in the very center of the village of Dsegh, Hovhannes Tumanyan House-Museum is the most famous museum in the Debed Canyon, frequently visited by people from all over Armenia. Hovhannes Tumanyan, a renowned Armenian writer, translator, literary and public activist, and the national poet of Armenia, was a native of Dsegh. The building that houses the museum was built by Tumanyan’s father in the 1860s, and here in this house Hovhannes Tumanyan was born and spent his childhood and adolescence.

Even later, when Tumanyan moved to Tbilisi, he would spend the summer months in Dsegh. In 1939, on the occasion of the poet’s 70th anniversary, the house was turned into a museum featuring about 300 objects that tell visitors about the life and activities of Tumanyan on his way of becoming one of Armenia’s greatest writers.

Operating hours:
Tue-Sat: 11 am – 5 pm
Sun: 11 am – 4 pm
Mon: Closed