New Matenadaran building to be ready in September

The construction of the new building of Matenadaran is planned to be completed in August 2011 and will be four times bigger than the current one.

The new building, designed by Arthur Meschyan, will however be exploited on September 21.

The current building of Matenadaran, home to hundreds of old manuscripts, was exploited in 1959.

“This is the decade’s construction in terms of architectural solutions, modern technologies, and the conditions of the preservation and restoration of the manuscripts,” the Director of the Matenadaran Hrachya Tamrazyan told journalists, as he was showing Armenia’s president around the construction site.

Tamrazyan also said that during Serzh Sargsyan’s visit another important problem has been solved: renovation of the current building of Matenadaran in the second stage of the construction.

“That is a global issue as Matenadaran is a tiny part of the world’s cultural treasures. We have planned to turn this building into a museum, to multiply the building’s capabilities for exhibitions by five times,” said Tamrazyan.

Also he said that simultaneously with the permanent exhibition there will be five other exhibition halls for exceptional exhibits, foreign-language manuscripts, old books’ exhibitions, etc.

The construction of Matenadaran’s new building is implemented thanks to donations. The main benefactor is Sergey Hambardzumyan, a Moscow-based Armenian businessman.

Speaking to Tert.am, the Director of the Matenadaran foundation, Hovhannes Chikchyan said that so far around $11,120,000 million has been invested for the construction and that all those funds have all been used.