The English Park ( hy, Անգլիական այգի, ''Angliakan aygi'') is a public park in

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and i ...

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...

, located on Italy Street. It occupies an area of 5.5 hectares in the central

Kentron district Kentron ( hy, Կենտրոն վարչական շրջան, translit=Kentron varčakan šrĵan), is one of the 12 districts of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. It comprises the downtown, the commercial centre of the city. As of the 2011 census, the ...

of the city, just to the south of the Republic Square.

History

The English Park is one of the oldest parks in the city of Yerevan, dating back to the 1860s. It was frequently renovated until

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, with a major renovation in 1910. In 1920, the English Park hosted the first ever football match in the modern history of Armenia, when the teams of Yerevan and

Alexandropol Gyumri ( hy, Գյումրի, ) is an urban municipal community and the second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th century, when the city w ...

met each other.Armenian Encyclopaedia: Football
/ref> During the Soviet period the park was renamed after the

26 Baku Commissars The 26 Baku Commissars were Bolshevik and Left Socialist Revolutionary (SR) members of the Baku Commune. The commune was established in the city of Baku, which was then the capital of the briefly independent Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, and ...

. After the independence of Armenia, the original name of the park was restored. In the early 2000s the park lost much of its territory. A new road, Italy Street, was sliced through its northern side, isolating part of the park from the remainder. Along one side of that new road a series of buildings were constructed on former park land, including the French embassy in Armenia, the Italian embassy in Armenia, and the Best Western Congress Hotel of Yerevan. The isolated part was later redeveloped as Yerevan 2800th Anniversary Park. The Sundukyan Academic Theatre is located on the periphery of the Park. A monument to

Gabriel Sundukyan Gabriel Sundukian ( hy, Գաբրիել Սունդուկյան; 11 July 1825 – 29 March 1912) was an Armenian writer and playwright, the founder of modern Armenian drama.

's fictional character Pepo was erected in the park in 1976. The central fountains are a popular location for wedding photographs.

Gallery

File:Armenia - Wedding (5034680108).jpg, View from the park File:Fountain English Park Yerevan.jpg, Fountain in the park File:Armenia - Relief (5034693444).jpg, Monument in the park File:Armenia - Fountain (5034065711).jpg, The central fountain

References

{{Yerevan landmarks Parks in Yerevan Urban public parks