Travel Guide Alaverdi

Dedicated since ancient times to the extraction of copper ore, the town of Alaverdi owes its present appearance to Soviet urban planning, even if it owes its development to Tsarist Russia, of which it has preserved few traces in its architecture. Lines of pink tufa housing bars designed to house the employees of the town and regional mines, some of which are still in operation. Alaverdi, a somewhat disinherited mining town with a height of between 750 and 1,400 m, is a telling testimony to Soviet industrial architecture, with its factories built in the heart of the town along the river Debet. The lower town is linked to the new upper town by an ancient cable car. But Alaverdi is above all an obligatory stopover to visit two of the most beautiful medieval monasteries, that of Sanahin, which adjoins the town, on the heights to the south, and that of Haghpat, 4 or 5 km to the east, following the course of the river Débet.