Victory Park, Public park in Kanaker-Zeytun district, Armenia.
Victory Park is a public green space situated on elevated ground overlooking downtown Yerevan and housing several attractions. Walking paths, a military museum, an artificial lake, cafes, and amusement rides are spread throughout the grounds.
Work on the park began in the late 1930s on wasteland in Nor Arabkir, planted in the 1930s and 1940s during Lenin subbotniks as Arabkir City Park. It was renamed Victory Park after the Great Patriotic War and opened on 29 November 1950, when a 17-metre copper Stalin by Sergey Merkurov on a basalt pedestal by Rafayel Israyelian was erected. Stalin was dismantled in 1962 and replaced in 1967 by Mother Armenia, designed by Ara Harutyunyan.
The Mother Armenia statue replaced a 17-metre copper Stalin in 1967; its basalt pedestal houses the Military Museum of Armenia, which was founded in 1970 and transferred to the Ministry of Defence in 1995. The Heroes Alley and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with an eternal flame were added nearby in 1985.
The park lies on high ground in Kanaker-Zeytun, north of the centre, so reaching it means a climb; the Mother Armenia complex and Heroes Alley stand at the top. The Arevik lake, shaped like Lake Sevan and up to 8.5 m deep, now offers rowing boats and catamarans rather than swimming, which ended in 1969. About 70 amusement rides occupy a 7-hectare section.
The Arevik lake, designed by architect Hovhannes Hakobyan, was built between 1958 and 1961 in the shape of Lake Sevan, with a maximum depth of 8.5 m. Its water was once chlorinated for swimming but also used to irrigate the park, and the chlorine damaged the vegetation, so swimming stopped in 1969. Rowboats and catamarans are now rented there.
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