Saint John the Baptist Church

The story

Known in Armenian as Surb Hovhannes Mkrtich of Kond, the church stands on the site of a medieval predecessor destroyed by a severe earthquake in 1679. The present building went up in 1710, paid for by a wealthy resident named Melik Aghamal. It began as a simple basilica without a dome. An extensive renovation in the 1980s gave it its characteristic cupola and a facade of the orange tuff stone typical of Armenia, finished with finely worked stonework. The setting is half the appeal. Kond is Yerevan's oldest neighbourhood, a maze of narrow lanes and old mud-brick houses that feels far removed from the city's modern, Soviet-shaped streets. The church sits within this tangle as one of the city's lesser-known treasures, a calm spot to pause.