NEW RESEARCH AND PRESERVATION BUILDING FOR MATENADARAN IN YEREVAN OFFICIALLY OPENED
World Architecture News
Oct 11 2011
A new building was officially opened yesterday at the Matenadaran
(Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts) in the Armenian capital
of Yerevan. Conceptualised by architect Artur Meshchyan in 1986,
the complex is a grey basalt form sunken into a hillside location in
central Yerevan with an integrated laboratory to preserve, restore and
digitise the 17,000 Armenian manuscripts, 3,000 manuscripts in other
languages and 100,000 other ancient documents in the organisation~Rs
possession.
Siranush Aspaturyan, a guide at the Institute explains: ~SOn the first
floor is the library, where there are approximately 2,000 ancient
books published from the years 1215 to 1800. Readers, scientists and
students who are preparing to defend their theses, all of whom have
come to the Matenadaran, can make use of this library. There are two
reading rooms. The Matenadaran also has a department for restoring
books where 15-18 employees work – the department is replete with
modern equipment. The archives are on the second floor. We also have
a 184-seat hall, which will be used during scientific meetings. We
didn~Rt have a theatre in the old building.~T