In Armenia with Luca Argentero: the places of “Hotel Gagarin”

Trip to Armenia, to discover the unusual cities where Simone Spada shot his latest film

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"Hotel Gagarin“, the new film by Simone Spada with Luca Argentero as the protagonist, has a setting that is certainly not lush. On the contrary. Filmed in Armenia, he stages harsh, unusual places that are perhaps precisely why they are so fascinating.

Filming, which took place between January and February 2018, began in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. Built on the banks of the Hrazdan River, on the slopes of Mount Ararat, Yerevan is connected by air to several European cities: Rome (with Air Italy, ex Meridiana), London, Vienna, Prague, Munich, Paris.

Like all of Armenia, it is a place far from the traditional concept of tourism: among the destinations worth a visit we find Catholic, the oldest church in the city that escaped Stalinist destruction, and theMatenadaran Archive, with its collection of ancient Armenian, Greek, Syrian, Hebrew, Persian and Roman manuscripts.

Then there is the Opera House and there are zoos, botanical gardens, museums, like the Metz Yeghern (The Great Evil), dedicated to the genocide of 1915 – 1916. Finally, the Garden of the Righteous: here, in Wall of Memory, there are mounds of earth from the tombs of all those great personalities who did something to help the persecuted Armenians, including the Italian Giacomo Gorrini.

Filming of “Hotel Gagarin” with Luca Argentero then continued Sevan, inland village famous for its lake of the same name. And that's exactly it lake of sevan, one of the country's major tourist attractions: Armenia's largest lake, as well as one of the largest high altitude lakes in the world, is surrounded by medieval monasteries and it is inhabited by rare fauna: the Armenian gull breeds here, the whitefish from Lake Ladoga and the Turkish crayfish live here and, above all, the Sevan trout.

According to legend, during the barbarian invasions, the inhabitants of Sevan crossed the frozen waters of the lake to reach the nearby island where the Sevanavank monastery stood, and here they barricaded themselves praying to God to save them; the Arabs also tried to cross the ice, which however gave way, causing them to fall into the icy waters, killing them.

And if you wanted to stay right atHotel Gagarin? In fact, his real name is Akhtamar Hotel: It is located at Mashtotsner Street 3, a stone's throw from the lakeside promenade surrounding Lake Sevan.