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“The Iranian government has undertaken steps towards preservation of Armenian cultural monuments within the territory of Iran, yet it’s the Armenians that are neglecting their houses in New Julfa,” architect Marco Brambilla (USA) said at the   conference titled “New Julfa” which was held in the National Museum-Institute of Architecture of Armenia by the Ministry of Urban Developments.
“The war is not with the Government of Iran, but the market. Unfortunately, the Armenians are praying today for their buildings not to collapse. They don’t reconstruct their houses over the years. As soon as the historical building collapses and ceases to exist, the price for the land becomes eight times higher,” said the architect.

According to him, there have been about 300 different buildings in New Julfa, yet only fifty of them survived, and only 13 are explored. The architect also said that plans, drawings, photographs of New Julfa houses are kept in different archives in Iran. These should be collected, studied until they are disappeared altogether.

“This could be realized with the cooperation of different Armenian and Persian institutions. A program should be developed to save those plans,” said Bramilla.

To him the houses of Armenian merchants are built in Persian style, although they contain elements of Armenian architecture as well. The architects who built these houses are unknown. It is possible that in the beginning they were built by Persian architects before Armenians became skilled in the art and started cooperating with Persians. The frescos are the work of Armenian masters as they had learnt the European style of painting and founded a school.