Mayr Hayastan / Mother Armenia - Victory Park (Yerevan, Armenia) - Figurative Public Sculpture on Waymarking.com

The female personification of Armenia staying on a massive granite pedestal - Mayr Hayastan (Mother Armenia), symbol of the country and its capital Yerevan, you can find above the city in Victory Park.

Monuments always represent cultural significance especially if being part of history they themselves carry their piece of history. The story of Mother Armenia dates back to the 20th century. The statue is truly magnificent and victoriously and jubilantly rises in Victory Park. Sometimes you get the feeling this statue is seen from any angle and any high building in Yerevan.

The current statue, erected here in 1967, replaced a monumental statue of Joseph Stalin that was created as a victory memorial for the WWII in 1950. The statue was considered a masterpiece of the sculptor Sergey Merkurov. The basalt pedestal was designed by architect Rafayel Israyelian. Realizing that occupying a pedestal can be a short-term honour, Israyelian designed the pedestal to resemble a three-nave basilical Armenian church, as he confessed many years later "Knowing that the glory of dictators is temporary, I have built a simple three-nave Armenian basilica". In spring 1962, the statue of Stalin was removed and replaced by the Mother Armenia statue, designed by Ara Harutyunyan.

"Mother Armenia" has a height of 22 m, thus making the overall height of the monument 51 m, including the pedestal. The statue is built of hammered copper while the pedestal-museum is of basalt. The Mother Armenia statue symbolises peace through strength. It can remind viewers of some of the prominent female figures in Armenian history. It also recalls the important status and value attributed to the older female members of an Armenian family.

Mayr Hayastan' location on a hill overlooking Yerevan makes it look like a guardian of the Armenian capital. Every year on 9 May, thousands of Armenians visit the statue of Mother Armenia and lay flowers to commemorate the Armenian martyrs of the World War II. The pedestal hosts the Mother Armenia Military Museum of the Ministry of Defense. [excerpted from Wiki]