The town of Ashtarak is famous for an incredible local tragedy involving three sisters who all fell in love with the same prince. According to legend, the oldest two sisters committed suicide by jumping into the deep Kasagh river gorge to let the youngest sister be happy. One wore a red dress, and the other wore an apricot-orange dress. Overcome with grief, the youngest sister also jumped into the canyon wearing a white dress. Today, three unique medieval churches, colored red, apricot, and white, stand on the cliffs overlooking the gorge to remember them.
Right beneath these cliffside churches sits the quiet, stone bridge built in 1664. It was funded by a wealthy merchant named Mahdesi Khoja Grigor to connect the old neighborhoods of the town and serve as a vital lifeline for trade routes. Unlike flat modern crossings, this pedestrian-only path steps gracefully down along the rugged slopes of the canyon, using a mix of pointed and rounded arches made from native volcanic stone.
If you make the twenty minute journey northwest from Yerevan to see the legendary churches of Ashtarak, walking down into the green gorge to stand on this ancient bridge offers the best perspective. From the center of the old span, you can hear the river below and look straight up at the historic stone towers built along the cliffs, experiencing a completely hidden side of Armenia's cultural history.
