Goris Deputy Mayor Sounds Alarm: Historic Building of Significant Importance Put Up for Sale

The State Property Management Committee has put up for sale one of the historically significant buildings in Goris. Deputy Mayor Irina Yolyan raised the alarm about this on her Facebook page, posting photos of the Teacher’s House building in Goris.

“The Teacher’s House building was the site of the Excursion State Service back in 1950, later becoming a pastoral house, and eventually serving as the Goris Teachers' House. In 1870, this house was inhabited by Mesrop Magistros, Archbishop Ter-Movses, who coordinated the council established for the construction of the Goris Theater building,” she wrote.

Yolyan also added that the building is unique in its color, significance, and location, and that there have been attempts to sell it for years, but it remains one of the few surviving structures. The Deputy Mayor suggested that the building could house a Geology Museum, currently located on the first floor of a cultural center in a very inadequate space. According to her, the building could also become a rug museum or another public institution of similar importance, but history should not be erased, only to later find a vehicle repair point operating there.

“I hope that the State Property Management Committee will reconsider its decision; it is unacceptable to sell this building,” Yolyan wrote.

One Facebook user inquired whether the community could purchase this building, to which Yolyan replied that in such a case, it should be donated to the community. She noted that the building was originally donated by the community to the committee.

Incidentally, there is a commemorative plaque on the building that reads: “Mesrop Magistros, Archbishop Ter-Movses, lived in this house.”