BuildingMutilatedUncertain

Rossiya cinema

'Ayrarat', Rossia Mall

May 18, 2025Alexkom000CC BY 4.0 source

Two concrete volumes hung over Tigran Mets Avenue on steel cables — the first roof of its kind in Armenia. Inside were 2,880 seats, a starlit sky over the main hall, and the work of four artists. The building stands and is state-protected; there has been no cinema in it since the early 2000s, the interior is stripped, and the halls are sealed.

Designed: 1970
Completed: 1975
Address: 14 Tigran Mets Avenue, Yerevan
Authors: Artur Tarkhanyan (architect), Spartak Khachikyan (architect), Hrachya Poghosyan (architect)

The state register dates the building to 1975; it opened to audiences in December 1974, after construction that began in 1971.

Protection

On the state registerrepublic-level

Register entry: №263
Listed since: August 14, 2025
By act: RA Government Decision N 1151-N of 14 August 2025

Entry 263 in Yerevan's state register of monuments: 'Building of the Ayrarat (Rossia) cinema', republic-level significance, USSR prize 1979. It was not in the 2004 list — Decision N 1151-N added it, the same act on the same day that listed the old Zvartnots terminal. The protected status did not prevent the interior from being stripped.

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Key figures

1,600 + 1,000 + 280

Seats across three halls

Mediamax

62,000 m³

Building volume

Википедия

about 40 x 60 m

Span over the avenue

Mediamax

about USD 500,000

Privatization price

Mediamax

Timeline

1970Origin
A design that argues with Tamanyan
The Union of Architects approves the modernist design after two days of debate; some members were firmly against departing from the classical tradition.
Artur Tarkhanyan, Spartak Khachikyan, Hrachya Poghosyan
Mediamax
1974Development
'The church he never got to build'
Anahit Tarkhanyan on her father: 'He used to say he never managed to design a church, but here he pulled it off.' The central hall's ceiling was a night sky — people looked up and saw stars.
Anahit Tarkhanyan, Artur Tarkhanyan
Sputnik Армения
December 1974Milestone
Opening
Beyond the auditoriums: exhibition space, dance floors, cafés and a bar. The building worked as a cultural center, not only a cinema.
Mediamax Википедия
1979MilestoneWin
USSR Council of Ministers Prize
All three authors of the design receive the award.
ՀՀ ԱՐԼԻՍ Википедия
~1991Development
Renamed 'Ayrarat'
After independence the name changes; it is as 'Ayrarat' that the building later enters the monuments register.
Википедия
2004DecisionLoss
Privatized for about USD 500,000
The buyer is a company in the Sil Concern group. Most of the decorative sculpture was destroyed in the works that followed.
Sil Concern
Mediamax Википедия
November 11, 2006Development
First phase of the shopping center opens
The building gets its historical name 'Rossiya' back — now as a shopping and entertainment center. The promise to restore film screenings was not kept.
Sil Concern
Mediamax Википедия
2008DevelopmentLoss
Reconstruction works halted
The halls stay sealed and the interior stripped.
Mediamax
December 23, 2024Media
The interior is photographed from inside
A series of freely licensed photographs records the state of the halls, the floor, the stained glass and the coffers — normally all behind closed doors.
Wikimedia Commons
August 14, 2025MilestoneWin
The building enters the state register of monuments
Government Decision N 1151-N adds the cinema to Yerevan's register as entry 263 — twenty-one years after the list was approved without it. The same act, on the same day, lists the old Zvartnots terminal: both buildings are Tarkhanyan and Khachikyan's.
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What has been lost

The decorative sculpture and interior finishes, including Amayak Bdeyan's transparent partition roughly 10 meters wide and 3.5 high
~2004
Mediamax
Film screening: three halls seating 2,880 are sealed and out of use
2008
Mediamax Википедия
The foyer as a public room: the samovar tearoom, the circular bar under the stairs, the portraits of Armenian film actors
Mediamax