Gyumri, Armenia: Exploring the Country’s Artistic Soul, Historic Streets, and Ancient Fortress Legacy Few cities in the South Caucasus carry a cultural identity as layered and as stubbornly alive as Gyumri. Armenia’s second‑largest city sits on a high plateau in the northwest of the country, backed by the volcanic peaks of the Lesser Caucasus and separated from Turkey by barely eight kilometres of open ground. That border‑proximity shaped everything here, from the military fortress on the city’s northern edge to the dark‑stone architecture that lines the Kumayri district. Gyumri is not a polished heritage showcase. It is a working city that survived a catastrophic earthquake in 1988, a post‑Soviet economic…