Internationally acclaimed Russian artist Ivan Aivazovsky was buried by the Armenian St Sargis Church — he was its regular parishioner — in 1900. In 1903, his widow Anna had a monument erected on his grave — a sarcophagus made of a block of snow-white marble that was designed by famous Italian sculptor L. Biagioli. Engraved on the marble plate is an inscription in Armenian: "Born a mortal, he left an immortal memory of himself".