Held under the supervision of several international institutions, the exhibition Arquitetura Arménia do século IV ao XVIII [Armenian architecture from the 4th to the 18th Century] was presented in the cities of Milan (1968), Parma, Genoa, Vienna, Bari (1969), Buenos Aires (1970) and Lisbon, inaugurated in February 1973, and finally Beirut, later that same year.

In Lisbon, the exhibition proved to be of great strategic interest for the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (FCG), since it was understood to be a virtually unknown subject in Portugal.

Consisting essentially of documentary content, this exhibition was aimed at illustrating exhaustively the majority of Armenian buildings and architectural ensembles, while presenting various types of documentation (textual, cartographic and photographic records), still unpublished at the time (Arquitetura Arménia do século IV ao XVIII, 1973).

During the production of the event, it was found that it would be particularly beneficial to associate the Instituto Italiano de Cultura in Portugal, with a view to developing a program of activities to complement the exhibition. This cooperation led to a conference cycle for which Ricardo Averini, then Director of the Instituto Italiano de Cultura in Portugal, found appropriate to invite two professors from the Faculty of Architecture of Milan and Rome, Alpago-Novello, and Paolo Cuneo, known for having conducted research work on Armenian religious architecture.

In the article he wrote for the Colóquio/Artes magazine, Ricardo Averini would comment that this exhibition had become "an artistic event of exceptional importance" (Averini, Colóquio/Artes, Apr. 1973, p. 68).