Gyumri

Gyumri, Armenia - darkometer rating : 5 - Gyumri is the second largest city in Armenia (after Yerevan ) and functions as the capital of the remote Shirak region in the north-west of the country. In the devastating Spitak earthquake of 1988 Gyumri was badly damaged, and you can still see various ruins today. There are a couple of further dark attractions within the city, and it also serves as a perfect base for excursions to various sites in the surrounding area. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: Gyumri was an old but comparatively insignificant city in Armenia until Tsarist Russia took over. They also changed the name of the place to Alexandropol. During that period it became one of the most significant trading posts and grew to be the third-largest city in the Caucasus, after Tbilisi and Baku , but ahead of Yerevan . The characteristic architecture of around the turn of the century is still the most visible legacy of Tsarist Russia in Gyumri (cf. also Kars in Turkey !) – it's referred to as Alexandropol's Belle Epoche. Russia has since then also always had a strong military presence in Gyumri, except for a short period following the Russian Revolution and WWI . Some of Gyumri's military forts date back to the Tsarist period too (including the Black Sentry Fort). Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union , independent Armenia signed an agreement that allows Russia's 102nd military base to be based at Gyumri, with thousands of soldiers and substantial hardware (the same agreement also saw to it that Russian border guards still patrol Armenia's borders with Iran and Turkey – see Ani viewpoint & Iron Curtain ).