Aramyants Castle / Mansion

Pokr Ayrum, Armenia, Armenia

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Aramyants Castle (also called Aramyants Mansion) is a historic, Swiss‑style castle‑like building on the upper road between Akhtala and Pokr Ayrum in the Lori region of Armenia, originally constructed in the early 1900s by wealthy Armenian industrialist and philanthropist Mikael Aramyants as a luxurious summer residence for his daughter, who suffered from tuberculosis.

The mansion is designed in the style of a European medieval/Swiss chalet, with imported trees and shrubs such as Japanese cypresses planted in its garden, and at the time it was one of the most elegant and unusual architectural creations in the country, remaining the only preserved private castle in Armenia besides the Tairov castle in Vanadzor.

Over the years it became a cultural hub where famous figures like poet Hovhannes Tumanyan, opera singer Fyodor Chaliapin, religious leader Catholicos Khrimyan Hayrik, and others visited and rested, and the estate even hosted Armenia’s first tennis court. The castle gained special national importance because on December 15, 1917 it was the place where the declaration establishing the First Republic of Armenia was adopted, giving the site a key role in Armenia’s modern history.