Markets Armenia

Located in the popular suburbs of Malatia-Sebastia, otherwise known as Bangladesh, southwest of the capital, it is the largest fruit and vegetable market in the capital. Even though it has been refurbished, a beautiful disorder, shouts and colours animate the alleys of this market where farmers often sell their produce directly to the capital's retailers. A little off-centre, even if it can be reached by metro from the centre, but picturesque. The products are, one suspects, cheaper than in the city.

Situated on the site of the old Persian bazaar, just before reaching the Hrazdan, south of Mashtots Avenue, opposite the Goy Mosque, it has little in the way of an oriental market. Built in the Soviet era in an Assyrian-Urartan style, this covered market is more reminiscent of Yerevan's Soviet past than the era of the Sardars of Persia. It has been renovated and has lost some of its folklore, but with the sun-drenched productions of the Armenian land, it has a lot of colour and flavour, as the fruit and vegetables are of excellent quality.

Like Yerevan, Gyumri has its large covered market, translate Pak Shuka, which is located in the heart of the city, a stone's throw from the central Vartanants Square. The well-stocked stalls, full of all kinds of vegetables and fruit, but also of local produce, and the animation, intense at weekends, if not very typical, show in any case that life is returning to normal in the city, some thirty years after the earthquake that devastated it.