History of Step'anavan

was founded by one of the powerful kings of Armenia, David I Anhoghin, between 1005–1020. In 1065, king Kiurike I proclaimed Lori as the capital of the Kyurikid Kingdom after losing the town of Shamshvilde to the Georgian king Bagrat IV. Located on the northern trade route, Lori was a large craft and commercial centre in medieval Armenia. It had a population of more than 10,000 in the 11th century.

In 1105, Lori was occupied by the Seljuks, then by the Georgian House of Orbeliani. Later it became under the rule of the Armenian Zakarian brothers, Ivaneh and Zakareh. In 1236, Chaghatai Khan, the commander of the Mongolian army took over the town and razed it to the ground.

Between the 14th and 17th centuries, while under the rule of the Armenian Orbelian Dynasty as governors of Jalayirids, Karakoyunlu, Timurids and Akkoyunlu, Lori remained a strategically important fortress until the 17th century, when it was captured by Turks, Persians and Georgians respectively. During the reign of Catherine the Great of the Russian Empire in the 18th century, the town of Jalaloghly was founded on the same site, by the Armenian Hasan-Jalalyan dynasty from Karabakh. Jalaloghly was part of Borchalu region within the governorate of Tiflis in the Russian Empire.

The name "Jalaloghly" was used until 1923, when it was renamed "Stepnavan" after the Armenian Bolshevik leader Stepan Shaumyan