Conservons Nos Monuments Historiques!

“Let’s Preserve Our Historical Monuments!” [Title]

This uncommon map of Soviet Armenia calls on the audience (in French) to help in preserving the nation’s cultural legacy and historic architecture. Seen as sources of Armenian independence and national identity, these locations were often neglected by Soviet administrators looking to curtail such feelings in the republic.

The skillfully composed image presents a simple map of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, filled with vignettes depicting a variety of sites including churches, tombs, fortresses, and monuments. An index on the left side lists each location numerically, according to the regions faintly outlined on the map.

As far as I can tell, the earliest site is the 1st century ‘pagan temple’ at Garni. It’s labeled as Number 3 in the Abovian region and can be found about 20 miles east of Yerevan. A small vignette represents the ruins of the Greco-Roman temple prior to the extensive reconstruction efforts that began the year after publication. Today, the colonnaded building, one of the few to exist in the former Soviet Union, is one of Armenia’s most popular tourist attractions. Other historic sites are represented in the various illustrations and scenes that divide the composition.

The map was created by Grigor Avagyan and published in Yerevan in 1968. Avagyan served as a professor of geography at Yerevan State University before serving in the first Armenian parliament after the country’s independence from the Soviet Union.