Yerevan Carpet Weaving

This is a story about the tradition of carpet weaving as a link between past and future. Armenian carpets provide continuity and comfort both spiritually and materially, as they honour the deceased, while being treasured parts and parcels of families and of Armenian national identity. Carpets overtime have gained new uses. The rugs have never served solely as a household object but have always had ritual meanings. This is why carpets are important in Armenian culture. Throughout the ages, the carpets have been national symbols and have had unique historical and cultural value. There are carpets whose ornaments hide a whole life story. Carpets were thought to have curing features, not only because they were made of natural wool and the threads were coloured by natural dyes, but for their meaning and their ornaments. The old and sick member of the family always lied in the place where they had a carpet. There was difference between the rugs that were put on the floor and the rugs that were hung on the walls. Carpets with special ornament were hung on the walls and a lot of valuable things, musical instruments, and pictures of dead relatives were put on them. The carpets that were put on the floor had interesting ornaments, but they didn’t have special ritual meanings or the symbols of their ancestors.

A mosaic depicting a carpet is a tangible tribute to carpet weaving, in central Yerevan, as it constitutes part of national identity

Special carpets hang on the walls to frame pictures of deceased family member

Hasmik Mirzabekyan owner of Mamik House

Mamik House, a detail

Megherian carpet factory, Yerevan

Prized keepsake belonging to Milena Sargsyan

Milena Sargsyan. Born in Baku, Milena had to flee in 1988 when ethnic violence erupted against Armenians, and moved to Nagorno Karabakh the Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, from where she had to leave again in 2023. Here she is weaving a carpet for a client

Milena Sargsyan's family: husband and daughter

Megherian Carpet Factory.

Yerevan: Vernissage open carpet market

Mamik House, Yerevan. Washinig the carpets is a family affair: everyone wants to participate!

Yerevan: A neighboroud meeting place is adorned with a carpet hanging on the wall

Yerevan, Kond neighbourhood: Georg inviting us to emter as he wanted to show us the carpets in his late father house that he is renovating.

Yerevan: A rare example at Tufenkian Historic Hotel

Yerecan: National History Museum. Lilia Avanesyan, the curator of the carpet section.

Yerevan, Georg's house: One of the carpets he had on the walls

Yerevan: Vernissage Carpet Market, a carpet seller

Yerevan: Georg showing us his treasures and how they are used to frame a picture of a late familyy member adorned with a rose

Georg's house. The author's auto-portrait

Yerevan, Kond neighbourhood, A carpet hangs on the walls of Kond House: A coffee shop run by Evelina, a young woman

A carpet hangs on the wall of an open air coffee shop in Kond neighboroud.

Georg's house in Kond. Carpets are used to provide a rich background to deceased family members’ photos hanging on the wall

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