National Gallery of Armenia
National Gallery of Armenia
4.5
Tuesday
11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Wednesday
11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Thursday
11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Friday
11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Saturday
11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Sunday
11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
About
The National Gallery of Armenia is the major fine art museum in Armenia and the largest in the world with its Armenian fine arts collection. Established in 1921. The collection includes more than 40 000 highly valuable works of Armenian and foreign fine art and those of decorative-applied art among which are the famous masterpieces of Hovhannes Aivazovsky, Vardges Sureniants, Martiros Sarian, Wassily Kandinsky, Mark Chagall, Donatello, Gustave Courbet and other distinguished artists.
Duration: 2-3 hours
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
Popular mentions
4.5
233 reviews
Excellent
124
Very good
71
Average
25
Poor
11
Terrible
2
Sophia W
18 contributions
Nov 2023 ā¢ Solo
Unprofessional staffs! Thereāre always 2-4 female staffs gather together and chat to each other āall the timeā, on each FLOOR!!!!!
Annoying or not, you canāt enjoy art with grandma chats, arenāt you?
Btw, they charged double prices for foreigners, but they donāt provide different languagesā audio guides, which means no added values but just extra payment, an excellent office!
Annoying or not, you canāt enjoy art with grandma chats, arenāt you?
Btw, they charged double prices for foreigners, but they donāt provide different languagesā audio guides, which means no added values but just extra payment, an excellent office!
Written November 9, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
knarikmelkonian
Yerevan, Armenia89 contributions
Aug 2018 ā¢ Friends
The galery is in the heart of the capital city Yerevan, the Republic square. The galery is big, get ready to enjoy your time here! Besides the main exhibition you can find different short-term exhibitions too. Enjoy!
Written August 25, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Alina
Toronto, Canada23 contributions
Jul 2014 ā¢ Family
There aren't a lot of Armenian painters, so you don't have to do much to qualify being put on the walls in the Art Gallery. I would recommend to use the time somewhere else.
Written July 22, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Sophie T
36 contributions
Nov 2019 ā¢ Couples
The gallery has 5 floors of art, 3 of which were Armenian artists. Interesting to see the range of styles and representation of Armenian landscapes etc. Prepare your sense of humour for the slightly bizarre building layout, creaky retro lift, and schoolteacher-esque ladies ordering you in the right direction (and expect a tut if you don't close the door behind you). Take it as part of the experience and you will enjoy it!
Written November 5, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Magnar J
Stavanger, Norway54 contributions
Oct 2019
Great museum in the center of Yerevan. Beautiful building and great selections. Plan to stay for a couple of hours.
Written November 3, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Stanislav M
Boise, ID74 contributions
Nov 2016 ā¢ Friends
I was not sure what to expect from this gallery since I haven't heard much about it, but turns out it's pretty good. The collection is a bit eclectic due to it being, as I understood, in significant part contributed by donors but has some interesting pieces both classic (Dutch, Italian, etc.) and more modern - impressionist/expressionist, etc. Good representation of Armenian painters, Aivasovsky of course has a prominent place. In my opinion, well worth spending half-day or so when you plan what to do in Erevan, or at least couple of hours if you have less time (though collection is pretty large, you won't be able to see all).
The technical side - building maintenance, lighting, climate control, etc. - need some upgrading. Elevator only works from the lowest floor up to the highest, but not between, so if you are not comfortable with long flights of stairs or are disabled, it's going to be an issue. The building itself looks well-worn inside, probably didn't see a renovation for some time. I guess may be a financing issue. Maybe they could charge a bit more for admission? Right now it's less than $2, could be more I think. I'd pay it.
Lighting is also less-than-perfect in many places, and during our visit lights went out completely, fortunately it was a sunny day so we still could continue viewing and lists were back after a while. But I'm not sure exposing paintings to sunlight this way is a great idea...
Also could use some better signage and more descriptions/biography/context information - about the paintings and painters. We all have Wikipedia in our pockets now of course, but it's be more comfortable not to get distracted when I want to know more about specific painter but just read it. The gallery definitely could use some acquaintance with 21th century :)
Summarizing - pretty decent collection though the technical side definitely could use a lot of improvement.
The technical side - building maintenance, lighting, climate control, etc. - need some upgrading. Elevator only works from the lowest floor up to the highest, but not between, so if you are not comfortable with long flights of stairs or are disabled, it's going to be an issue. The building itself looks well-worn inside, probably didn't see a renovation for some time. I guess may be a financing issue. Maybe they could charge a bit more for admission? Right now it's less than $2, could be more I think. I'd pay it.
Lighting is also less-than-perfect in many places, and during our visit lights went out completely, fortunately it was a sunny day so we still could continue viewing and lists were back after a while. But I'm not sure exposing paintings to sunlight this way is a great idea...
Also could use some better signage and more descriptions/biography/context information - about the paintings and painters. We all have Wikipedia in our pockets now of course, but it's be more comfortable not to get distracted when I want to know more about specific painter but just read it. The gallery definitely could use some acquaintance with 21th century :)
Summarizing - pretty decent collection though the technical side definitely could use a lot of improvement.
Written November 16, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
genibre69
London, UK5,452 contributions
Jun 2022 ā¢ Solo
Yes I enjoyed the Armenian impression exhibit, but itās completely unfair to charge full price when 90% is closed and will be for some time!! Photos allowed.
Written June 4, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
vdshkolnikov
Warsaw, Poland31 contributions
May 2017 ā¢ Business
Third largest classic art museum in the former Soviet Union. Pieces by Boticelli and Tintoretto are in the collection. Check out very unusual Chagalls. I visited this place first in the 1990s, and they had quite a few Socialist Realism paintings. After the renovation, Socialist Realists have been scaled down in favor of Armenian portrait art. You will need 3 hours for the visit. The price of the ticket is about 1.5 Euro.
Written May 10, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Suha H
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates63 contributions
Oct 2014 ā¢ Family
Lots of History and staff are helpful, not easy to use a baby stroller inside as moving from one level to to the other is through the Stairs, but managable
Written March 15, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
PatrickM_Travels
Almaty, Kazakhstan1,787 contributions
Jan 2015 ā¢ Couples
Official name "National Gallery of Armenia", located on Republic Square, this art museum has an entrance fee of only about $1.70 USD per person and can easily fill 2-3 hours of your day. It presents a large collection of art ranging from Greek to Roman to Armenian to American, spread over 5 floors of an expansive building.
Unfortunately the museum is very strangely organized, or actually not organized at all, I should say. You'll find 1000 year old works of art next to 50 year old works of art of entirely different origin and style. As you traverse the museum, absolutely no story is told, no progression of time or style is portrayed, since the whole thing is poorly organized. There are panels listing the artist name, country, and date, but no additional information.
Whoever is the curator of the museum must not enjoy color, because at least 80% of the paintings were extremely dark and gloomy with minimal use of any color. When we walked into the one and only room that had some colorful paintings, it was such a rarity that we stopped and remarked "color!". I'm not saying the dark artwork is bad, but if you're looking for vibrant and colorful works of art, you will not find it here.
A number of historical paintings were directly exposed to sunlight and I believe this will damage the paintings over time -- something should be done about this.
We visited on a cold Sunday winter afternoon and I believe we were the only tourists in the entire building. But there were at least 50 women working there -- at least one per room. Most would very awkwardly and annoyingly breath down our necks as we looked at art. We do not look Armenian -- and this must have been fascinating to these women, because I have never been stared at so much by museum staff in my life. Some would lock their gaze on us for the entire time we were in the room, making us feel incredibly uncomfortable, like we were doing something wrong. Other staff would sit gossiping loudly with each other in the corner or in the windowsills, while others would be conversing loudly on their cell phones. Overall the attitude and behavior of the staff was a major deterrent and made me not enjoy my experience.
Still, this museum is a must-visit if you are in Yerevan, particularly because there are not all that many museums in Yerevan. If it's a cold winter day, or rainy, then go here. Just prepare yourself for a very "average" experience. But when the weather is nice, you may find your time better spent elsewhere.
Unfortunately the museum is very strangely organized, or actually not organized at all, I should say. You'll find 1000 year old works of art next to 50 year old works of art of entirely different origin and style. As you traverse the museum, absolutely no story is told, no progression of time or style is portrayed, since the whole thing is poorly organized. There are panels listing the artist name, country, and date, but no additional information.
Whoever is the curator of the museum must not enjoy color, because at least 80% of the paintings were extremely dark and gloomy with minimal use of any color. When we walked into the one and only room that had some colorful paintings, it was such a rarity that we stopped and remarked "color!". I'm not saying the dark artwork is bad, but if you're looking for vibrant and colorful works of art, you will not find it here.
A number of historical paintings were directly exposed to sunlight and I believe this will damage the paintings over time -- something should be done about this.
We visited on a cold Sunday winter afternoon and I believe we were the only tourists in the entire building. But there were at least 50 women working there -- at least one per room. Most would very awkwardly and annoyingly breath down our necks as we looked at art. We do not look Armenian -- and this must have been fascinating to these women, because I have never been stared at so much by museum staff in my life. Some would lock their gaze on us for the entire time we were in the room, making us feel incredibly uncomfortable, like we were doing something wrong. Other staff would sit gossiping loudly with each other in the corner or in the windowsills, while others would be conversing loudly on their cell phones. Overall the attitude and behavior of the staff was a major deterrent and made me not enjoy my experience.
Still, this museum is a must-visit if you are in Yerevan, particularly because there are not all that many museums in Yerevan. If it's a cold winter day, or rainy, then go here. Just prepare yourself for a very "average" experience. But when the weather is nice, you may find your time better spent elsewhere.
Written January 12, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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Written November 23, 2016
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Written November 23, 2016
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