The Value of Yerevan Mayor's Word: On September 15, the Indoor Market Will Become Yerevan-City Supermarket

Hasmik Harutiunian

Translated by Vartan Matiossian

During two years, the media and the architects spoke continuously about the issue of the Indoor Market (Փակ շուկայ/Pak Shuka). During two years, there were continuous press conferences, protest demonstrations, hundreds of articles. During two years, the bodies accountable for the fate of the building, the Ministry of Culture and the Municipality, either avoided talking about the Indoor Market or asserted that everything would be OK.

Yerevan’s ‘Pak Shuka’: An Iconic Market’s Uncertain Future

Armen Sanentz 

What was once known as “one of Armenia’s best architectural structures” is now subject to demolition. For the past six decades, tourists and locals alike flocked to the Pak Shuka (literal translation “closed market,” meaning covered indoor market), where vendors sold their goods under the massive building’s prominent arches.

The historic Pak Shuka Market was a central bazaar constructed in 1952 by engineer Hamazasp Arakelyan and designed by famed architect Grigor Aghababyan (whose 100th anniversary was celebrated in 2011). It was listed on the State List of Immovable Historical and Cultural Monuments of Yerevan as an officially recognized architectural monument. During the Soviet era, when the avenue was named Lenin Prospekt, it was Yerevan’s only market with a fixed roof.