Gyumri is nothing like other Armenian cities. Nor does it resemble any other in the world. If Yerevan was known during the Soviet period as the ‘Pink City’, Gyumri might well have been nicknamed the ‘Black City’.
The city was, until the outbreak of the urban fever of the capital, the most populated area of the country. The locals here used a variety of very dark volcanic tufa that abundant in the area to build their mansions and buildings.