Vanadzor - History

History

Much of the city's history is unknown. The human settlement in the region of present-day Vanadzor possibly dates back to the Bronze Age, with interesting tombs and many other remains found in the nearby hills of Tagavoranist and Mashtots.

The area of modern-day Vanadzor belonged to the Tashir canton of Gugark; the thirteenth province of the Kingdom of Armenia (Armenia Mayor), until the end of the Artaxiad Dynasty's rule over Armenia in the 1st century AD. Later, the settlement was ruled by the other Armenian dynasties of the Arsacids and the Bagratunis. By the end of the 10th century, the area became part of the Kingdom of Lori (Kingdom of Tashir-Dzoraget) until the beginning of the 12th century. With the invasion of the Seljuk Turks, the region became under the rule of the Great Seljuk Empire. The town was called "Karakilisa" by the Seljuks possibly as early as the 13th century, from the black-stoned Armenian church of the Holy Mother of God, on the nearby hill.

In 1801, it became part of the Russian Empire along with the Georgian state, a fact that made the city one of the strategically important points for the Russian defensive forces on the border with Persia. In 1826, Karakilisa was totally destroyed by Hasan Khan during the Russo-Persian war. In 1849, it became part of the Yerevan Governorate within the Russian Empire. The city enjoyed considerable uplift through the opening of the railroad to Tbilisi in 1899. The vicinity of the city was the site of the Battle of Karakilisa when in May 1918, General Tovmas Nazarbekian's outnumbered troops, led by Garegin Nzhdeh successfully defended it from the invading Turkish Army, pushing them back just a few days after the crucial battle of Sardarapat, thus allowing the Democratic Republic of Armenia to come into existence. On the North side of the Spitak-Vanadzor highway, about 2 km West of the city, there is a little shrine in the ruins of a church, site of a planned monument to that battle.

According to Khachatur Abovian, the population of Karakilisa was not more than 600 dwellers in the 1820s, mainly migrants from Yerevan. After becoming part of Yerevan Governorate, the town was flooded with many hundreds of Armenian families, migrated from Kars, Ardahan and Western Armenian cities of Karin and Daroynk (Doğubeyazıt).

The first city development plan of Vanadzor initiated by architects Karo Halabyan, Mikayel Mazmanyan and Gevork Kochar, was adopted in 1929-1930. Under the new plan, the town was enlarged towards the eastern and western parts. In 1939, the new re-building plan created by architects N. Zargaryan and A. Minasyan has remodeled the city creating an industrial district and a summer-resort area. The Vanadzor city centre was redeveloped during the 1950s. The central town square was opened surrounded with government and administrative buildings.

Vanadzor, like Gyumri and Spitak (25 km west), suffered a considerable amount of damage from the 1988 Spitak earthquake when 564 residents died in the city. Unlike the two other cities, the majority of buildings in Vanadzor were unscathed from the earthquake.