Dilijan Museum

Big wealth in small town

Yerkir/arm
3 Dec 04

Constructor Retkin and other laborers found various bronze age items on the Yerevan-Tbilisi highway in 1950's. After that archeologists made excavations and transferred the found items to the museum of Dilijan.

The museum consists of several departments: ethnography, arts, revolution, modernity, etc. An important department contains drawings of Gevorg Bashinjaghian, Vardges Sureniants, Martiros Sarian, Hovhannes Ayvazovski and others. All the drawings are original. Today two of Ayvazovski's drawings are under repair at the National Gallery in Yerevan.

One of the departments is devoted to the liberation war in Artsakh. The museum often enriches its spectrum by donations of local residents.

Since the entrance is free, it often hosts school children and other visitor. However, the museum does not enrich the treasury of the town with incomes.

The biggest issue for the museum at this point is the poor condition of the artifacts, which need repair. However, the director of the museum Lilit Ginosian is hopeful, since the local officials have promised assistance in repairing during the next year.