Soviet Brutalist Architecture That Works: Yerevan's The Cascades

Ladies and gentlemen, presenting: The Cascades

Yerevan's The Cascades, which is where the bus-van tour began, is a masterpiece of Soviet-style Brutalist architecture. What is, or what are -- depending on whether "The Cascades" is one thing or several things -- Yerevan's The Cascades? It is an absolutely massive staircase connecting the residential neighborhoods above the city to the central downtown core. Now, in the post-Soviet era, the massive staircase has been transformed, reconfigured, or decorated -- choose your verb -- with the addition of museum's worth of public art.

It starts with the Alexander Tamanian Statue at the "gateway" to The Cascades.

But there is more art, of varying quality, on display past Mr. Tamanian when you are walking toward the massive staircase.

For me, the star attraction of the art display are the three large (and fat) statues by Colombian artist Fernando Botero. While Mr. Botero himself was somewhat trim (he passed away in 2023), he is known for depicting very rotund figures whether in sculpture, drawing, or painting. Fat people. Fat cats. Fat fruits and vegetables. Even his rendering of Jesus on the Cross shows a rotund Jesus.

I would not have expected to find Boteros in Yerevan, especially since the fat fullness of the statuary contrasts with the deprivation of the Soviet Era when The Cascades were built, but sometimes we find things where we least expect them to be.

Like I never expected to see this.

The bird may be fat, but I don't believe he (or she) (I was not told the preferred pronouns) is a Botero. But definitely in line with the Botero theme.

Time to ascend.

Fortunately, one does not have to walk the stairs of the giant staircase (at least not until the last flight of stairs) to reach the summit. There is an escalator inside.

At each "floor" -- or landing if you want to use staircase terminology -- there is a lookout area where you can walk out and check your progress on the ascent. Fountains at the first such "landing":

And artistic renderings of trees, I presume.

Perspective:

That will give you a sense the amount of territory covered by each interval in the ascent, from landing to landing.

Finally, at the top of where you ascend by escalator is this fountain.

The swimmer/diver motif works well for a fountain high above the rest of the city.

At this point, if you want to reach the summit, you have to climb stairs. No more escalator.

Is this at the summit worth the climb?

Well, if you only had to walk up one flight of stairs and not the whole massive staircase, then I would say "yes." The pillar does betray the Soviet origins of this massive example of the Brutalist school of architecture.

My legs were wearing out after the long day of bus-van touring, so it was time to descend. On the descent, I noticed this:

That is actually one massive sneaker. It's not just that somebody lost a shoe on the climb. I'm estimating three or four feet in length. Just another example of the apparent Armenian shoe fetish about which I learned on this trip.

And here is an elephant trunk emerging from a small hut:

The elephant looks like it is sporting a happy expression. Obviously the elephant is not bothered by the claustrophobia.

Dusk is settling in.

Time to get back to the hotel for the evening.

Unless you want to play in a fountain. They're functioning again all over the city after taking Tuesday off.

Day Two in the Land That Smiles Forgot: the Free Walking Tour

The Armenian National Opera and Ballet Theatre.
Don't be fooled by the pretentious "-re" spelling of "Theatre." Tickets are cheap.

The Free Walking Tour of Yerevan started at 4:30 p.m. and continued for three and a half hours until it was dark. There was a meal break in the middle, so it was not continuous walking the entire time.

The tour started in front of the national museum. The tour guide was pleasant and -- this is the plot twist to this Armenian vacation -- she talked. She actually communicated with us.

This area is now known as "Republic Square," displacing the old name of "Lenin Square" from a bygone era. The 100-foot tall statue of Lenin is gone, too.

But not this house. It pre-dates the Soviet era. It is built of black basalt (volcanic rock).

Here is some communist, socialist realism art that did survive:

And more communist art. This is a statue honoring Stalin's close Armenian friend, Stepan Shahumyan.

The Shahumyan Monument. Because of Armenia's historically cordial and complicated relations with Russia (primarily as a bulwark against the Turks and the Persians) (although Armenia now has very good relations with Iran), Armenia chose not to destroy much of its communist art and design. A 100-foot tall Lenin, however, was too much, even for the Armenian Russophiles.

This is a Soviet brutalist style building now gussied up into a bank building.

The metal tree does a great job of hiding the socialist realism facade.

I don't have many photos of the tour because I already had photographed the Republic Square area past the point of exhaustion. In between the very photogenic start and the photogenic end of the tour, the middle part was full of great information about Armenia, including the Armenian perspective on the recent peace deal negotiated between Armenia and Azerbaijan. But it was not full of photo ops.

After the dinner break, it was dark. The tour ended at the Cascades, a Soviet brutalist style massive staircase that leads to an upper part of Yerevan.

The fountains were in working order here on the north side of Yerevan. Colorful, too.

The tour ended, and it was time to head back to the hotel to rest my feet for the next day's excursion.

But there's always time to photograph from statuary. This is the Martiros Sarian Statue. He is as a communicative as most residents of Yerevan.