Gyumri (Armenian: Գյումրի,[a] pronounced [ɡjumˈɾi]) is an urban municipal community and the second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country.

The city became renowned as a cultural hub, while also carrying significance as a major center of Russian troops during Russo-Turkish wars of the 19th century.

The city was renamed Gyumri under modern independent Armenia soon after the breakup of the Soviet Union, and post-earthquake reconstruction efforts continue.

[1] Today, Gyumri continues to grapple with the lasting effects of the 1988 earthquake, but remains known as the cultural hub of Armenia due to the many artists and craftsman who originated from the city.

The remains of a royal settlement found just to the south of Gyumri near the village of Beniamin dating back to the 5th to 2nd centuries BC, are a great example of the Achemenid influence in the region.

In 658 AD, at the height of the Arab Islamic invasions, Kumayri was conquered during the Muslim conquest of Persia to become part of the Emirate of Armenia under the Umayyad Caliphate.

Under the foreign rulers, the town had gradually lost its significance during the following centuries, until the establishment of the Zakarid Principality of Armenia in 1201 under the Georgian protectorate.

During the Zakarid rule, the Eastern Armenian territories, mainly Lori and Shirak, entered into a new period of growth and stability, becoming a trade center between the east and the west.

After the fall of the Ilkhanate in the mid-14th century, the Zakarid princes ruled over Lori, Shirak, and Ararat plain until 1360 when they fell to the invading Turkic tribes.

[15] In 1501, most of the Eastern Armenian territories including Kumayri were conquered by the emerging Safavid dynasty of Iran led by Shah Ismail I.

Kumayri became officially part of the Russian Empire at the Treaty of Gulistan signed on 1 January 1813 between Imperial Russia and Qajar Persia.

In 1829, in the aftermath of the Russo-Turkish War, there was a big influx of Armenian population, as around 3,000 families who had migrated from territories in the Ottoman Empire -in particular from the towns of Kars, Erzurum, and Doğubeyazıt- settled in and around Gyumri.

The name was chosen in honour of Tsar Nicholas I's wife, Princess Charlotte of Prussia, who had changed her name to Alexandra Fyodorovna after converting to Orthodox Christianity.

The town was an important outpost for the Imperial Russian armed forces in the Transcaucasus where their military barracks were established (e.g., at Poligons, Severski, Kazachi Post).

By the end of the 19th century, Alexandropol was home to 430 shopping stores, several workshops, cultural institutions, a girl's gymnasium, a commercial school, a theater, and leather, bear, and soap enterprises.

On 10 May 1920, the local Bolshevik Armenians aided by the Muslim population, attempted a coup d'état in Alexandropol against the Dashnak government of Armenia.

As of 2014[update], according to some news websites, between 4,000 and 5,000 residents of Gyumri remain homeless, although there are no official figures provided by the local authorities of the city.

[citation needed] Gyumri has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb), characterized by freezing and snowy winters and warm summers.

The seat of the Ordinariate for Armenia, Georgia, Russia, and Eastern Europe for the Armenian Catholic Church is the Cathedral of the Holy Martyrs in Gyumri.

In 1912, Gyumri was home to the first opera show ever staged in Armenia, when composer Armen Tigranian presented Anoush to the public in Alexandropol.

Prominent directors Ruben Simonov and Vardan Ajemian, actors Mher Mkrtchyan, Azat Sherents and Varduhi Varderesyan worked in theatre.

The award-winning ensemble gathers many of Armenia's leading practitioners of traditional music, performing on duduk, sring, kamancha, oud, kanōn, santur, tar, saz, daf, dhol, and tombak.

In 2011 WhoCares, a supergroup formed by Ian Gillan and Tony Iommi with the participation of a great number of rock artists, raised money to build the "Octet" music school in Gyumri (opened two years later).

In order attract more customers, the Ministry of Nature Protection made meteorological services free for all airlines flying to Gyumri, lowering ticket costs.

[66] During the pre-Soviet era, Alexandropol was considered the third-largest trade and cultural center in Transcaucasia after Tiflis and Baku (Yerevan would not rise to prominence until being proclaimed as the capital of independent Armenia in 1918 and the Armenian SSR in 1920).

The nearby village of Akhuryan is home to the "Lusastgh-Sugar" factory (opened in 2010), the largest sugar producers in the Southern Caucasus region.

Shirak are one of the most popular football teams in Armenia, having won the championship of the Armenian Premier League four times, with the most recent one in the 2012–13 season.

The native of Gyumri and former Shirak player Artur Petrosyan was the all-time leading scorer for the Armenia national football team until his record was surpassed by Henrikh Mkhitaryan in 2013.

The futsal teams of Gyumri regularly play their home games at the Armen Sargsyan Sports Hall, located in the Ani district at the northwest of the city.

The city is notable for its worldwide champions in individual sports, such as Robert Emmiyan in long jump, Yurik Vardanyan and Nazik Avdalyan in weightlifting and Artur Aleksanyan in Greco-Roman wrestling.