Yerevan, Capital of Armenia

Yerevan is the capital of Armenia, and is home to over a million people - the largest Armenian community in the world. In Soviet years Yerevan underwent massive reconstruction, following Alexander Tamanyan's (the architect) new plans to make a perfect city - a Neo-Classical wide-avenues-based town. 

• Republic Square - Though it never took the planed shape of the Grand Square of a perfect city of Tamanyan, it still can be considered the finest example of Soviet era architecture as far as squares go. The early buildings (the Houses of Government, the Ministry of Communications, and the Marriott Hotel) are fine example of Neo-Classical architecture with Armenian hints. 
• Northern Avenue -  this pedestrian and shopping avenue connecting Opera with Republic Square. It's a Post-Modern response to post-WWII Soviet Yerevan architecture. 
• Abovian street - It's home to very few remaining Belle Époque period structures of Republican Armenia. .
• The Opera – It's the 'soft' center of the city. It is topped by the magnificent building of the Opera House. It is supposed to be double as beautiful as the Yerevan building is two sided: One side (entrance from the Theatrical/Freedom square) is home to Opera and Ballet Theatre, while the street side houses the Khachaturian Concert Hall.
• Freedom (or Theatrical) Square is part of The Opera. North side of the square is the Opera House, followed by a park full of open air cafés on the West, from South it borders the Northern Avenue, and on the East the square slowly transforms into park with Swan Lake. 
• Cascades, Sculpture Park and Cafesjian Museum – The Sculpture Park is a small green zone in the immediate North of The Opera. Sculptures from Botero and other artists of international fame decorate the Park. The park itself is part of Cafesjian Museum - the Armenian version of Guggenheim. The main part of the museum is in the Cascades - an Art Deco version of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon stretching nearly the height of the Empire State Building. It's a massive white stairway up a hillside of central Yerevan, decorated with green stretches, fountains and waterfalls. Higher level of the Cascades give a spectacular view of Mount Ararat and panorama of central Yerevan with it's multi-colour roofs. 
• St Gregory the Illuminator Cathedralwas completed in 2001 to commemorate the 1700th anniversary of Armenia as a Christian nation. The building is a megalomaniac exaggeration of traditional Armenian Church Architecture.