Cultural life of Gabala

Gabala International Music Festival has been traditionally held in Gabala every summer since 2009. The festival is organized with the help of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation. The event is organized on the initiative of the rector of the Baku Music Academy Farhad Badalbeyli and conductor Dmitry Yablonsky. Musicians perform in the open air. European, American and Israeli musicians are also taking part in the festival. Along with classical music concerts, jazz and mugam evenings are organized as part of the festival.

The settlements prove that the region has a rich culture. There were human settlements in the Yalovlu mountain near Nij village in the III-I centuries BC. Iron knives, daggers, swords, bronze rings, gold earrings, millstones, and other items were found in the area. Archaeological culture in  Aran (lowland) and the mountainous regions of northern Azerbaijan is called Yaloylu culture. 

Ancient Nij is located near Gabala city. Nij is the homeland of a special ethnic group among the Azerbaijani-Udinese ethnic groups, who are descendants of the Caucasian Albanians. Today, there are no more than 10,000 people, but they have managed to preserve their traditions, language, and spiritual culture. The Udin temple is one of the oldest Christian monuments in Azerbaijan. The temple was rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries at the site of the fourth Albanian church. The population of the village is hospitable. 

Gabala Historical Ethnography Museum,  folk art, and historical and cultural monuments in the village of Bum, the Museum house of Ismail Bey Gurtghashinli are some of the must-see places in the city.