a small museum from 1963 until the late 1970s. Then the building was left to itself for about two decades, until it was converted into a mosque in 1993. In the same district of Kars are two other ruined Armenian churches. A Russian church from the 1900s was converted to a mosque in the 1980s after serving as a school gymnasium. The Grand Mosque of Kars is the largest historic mosque in the city. Built by the Seljuks, it was restored by the Ottomans in 1579. The "Taşköprü" (Stone Bridge) is a bridge over the Kars river, built in 1725. Close to the bridge are three old bath-houses, none of them operating any longer. As a settlement at the juncture of Turkish, Armenian, Georgian, Kurdish and Russian cultures, the buildings of Kars come in a variety of architectural styles. Most Russian-era buildings in Kars are identical in architectural style to those of Gyumri in Armenia. Orhan Pamuk in the novel Snow, set in Kars, makes repeated references to "the Russian houses", built "in a Baltic style", whose like cannot be seen anywhere else in Turkey, and deplores the deteriorating condition of these houses. The Mansion of Ahmet Tevfik Pasha (Ahmet Tevfik Paşa Konağı) The Stone Bridge (Taşköprü) The Topchuoglu Bath House (Topçuoğlu Hamamı) The Ilbeoglu Bath House (İlbeyoğlu Hamamı) The Mazlumaga Bath House (Mazlumağa Hamamı) The House of Namık Kemal (Namık Kemal Evi) The Palace of Beylerbeyi (Beylerbeyi Sarayı) The Mansion of Pasha (Paşa Konağı) The Cemetery of Arap Baba (Arap Baba Şehitliği) The Mosque of Yusuf Pasha (Yusuf Paşa Camii) The Mosque of Evliya (Evliya Camii) The Tomb of Ebul Hasan-i Harakani (Ebul Hasan-i Harakani Türbesi) The Mosque of Fethiye (Fethiye Camii) The Mansion of Gazi Ahmet Muhtar Pasha (Gazi Ahmet Paşa Konağı) International relations Twin towns – Sister cities The municipality of Kars has developed sister city relationships with following cities at home and abroad: In popular culture Kars is the setting of the 2002 novel Kar (Snow) by Orhan Pamuk. Yerkir Nairi (Երկիր Նաիրի), a novel by Yeghishe Charents is dedicated to the public persons and places of Kars. Modest Mussorgsky composed the march "The Capture of Kars" to commemorate Russia's victory there in 1855. The film Kosmos (Cosmos) by Reha Erdem was filmed in and around Kars. In 1857 the settlement of Wellington in Ontario, Canada renamed itself Kars in honor of the Canadian-born General William