Öşk Vank
| Öşk Vank | ||
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 Church and village from the east |
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| Data | ||
| place | Çamlıyamaç in the province of Erzurum ( Turkey ) | |
| Construction year | 10th century | |
| Coordinates | 40 ° 36 '48.5 " N , 41 ° 32' 32.7" E | |
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Öşk Vank , Turkish , also Öşkvank , "Öşk monastery"; Georgian ოშკი Oshki , is a 10th century former monastery of the medieval Georgian kingdom of Tao-Klardschetien . In the village of Çamlıyamaç in the province of Erzurum in northeastern Turkey , the ruins of the largest cross-domed church in the region with an elaborate building sculpture have been preserved.
location
From the expressway in the valley of the Tortum River , which connects Artvin to Erzurum via Tortum , branches two to three kilometers south of the dammed Tortum Lake and nine kilometers north of the small town of Uzundere, a road along a stream to the west into an initially wide flat valley from. The mountain valley, which becomes steeper after a few kilometers between rugged mountains, leads up the southern slope of Mescit Dağları , a mountain range with several 3200 meter high peaks. After eight kilometers, coming from the south, you can see the towering church in the center of the village. The village of Çamlıyamaç is at an altitude of 1270 meters and has a new mosque and a small grocery store on the central square next to the church.
In addition to Öşk Vank, the best preserved Georgian churches in the Haho region are in a parallel valley a few kilometers south, as well as Dörtkilise , İşhan and Barhal , which can be reached from the small town of Yusufeli .
history
In the 9th and 10th centuries, numerous churches and monasteries were built in Tao-Klardschetien, which was the only Georgian Christian area outside the Arab sphere of influence, before it was united with three other principalities to form the Kingdom of Georgia at the end of the 10th century . The first monastery in the region from the middle of the 8th century was Opiza , this and many other monasteries developed into important cultural and educational centers.
General characteristics of Georgian churches are their clear and impressively high construction and blind arcades around the windows on the outer walls. The floor plan of the nave is combined with that of a cross- domed church , the dome of which emphasizes the space in front of the chancel and which is raised by a windowed drum . The forerunners of this type of construction are the basilicas, which were still squat in the 6th century and are preserved in today's Georgia . Their broad structure was greatly increased in the churches of the 10th century.
The construction of the monastery began in 963, made possible by a foundation of the ruler David III, who belongs to the Bagratid dynasty . (David the Great, ruled 961–1000) and his brother Bagrat († 966), sons of Adarnasse III. Kuropalat . The church was completed in 973 or a little later.
On the tympanum of the portal on the southern cross building, the long dedication inscription in the red letters of Mrglowani, the earliest Georgian script , written in the name of the site manager Grigol (Gregor Oschkeli), has been preserved. Grigol was arguably the leading Georgian architect in the 10th century. The inscription indicates that the church was probably dedicated to Mary and John the Baptist . Following the honor for the biblical saints and Georgian rulers, it contains a detailed list of the wage costs in kind for the workers and other expenses.
When the region belonged to the Byzantine Empire in the 11th century , Emperors Basil II (r. 976-1025) and Constantine VIII (r. 1025-1028) had the buildings renovated between 1022 and 1025 and the roofs renewed. In the middle of the 16th century, Tao-Klardschetien came to the Ottoman Empire . From the 17th century, the majority of the Georgians in Tao-Klardschetiens accepted Islam. Like other Georgian churches that belong to villages, Öşk Vank's church was rededicated as a mosque: from the end of the 19th century until 1980 it served as a mosque. In 1985 the Ministry of Culture listed the complex as a historical monument.
Design
The original church building made of yellowish sandstone measures 43.8 × 29.7 meters outside and is by far the largest cross-domed church in the region. The top of the dome reaches the enormous height of 34 meters. The floor plan is a three-corner complex , which is extended to the west by a wide nave. The pointed barrel vault of the nave has almost completely collapsed, so that the view of the preserved drum and the dome is exposed from inside. The middle semicircular apse within the east wall is 7.5 meters wide and 7.3 meters deep. It is flanked by two rectangular side rooms ( pastophoria ), which are two-story and each terminate with semicircular apses. According to the rules of a central building , the apses of the three sides correspond, the northern and southern ones are slightly wider at 8.3 meters, but only 5.7 meters deep and are also surrounded by (slightly shorter) side rooms. Four free-standing massive pillars support the central dome, the inner diameter of which is nine meters. On the outside it is surmounted by a conical roof. The transition from the square to the circular shape of the drum takes place in the corners via fan-like monolithic pendants . In the nave there was a gallery along the north wall that was directly accessible from the outside through a one meter wide door on the west facade. A wooden staircase served as the staircase.
A semi-open south gallery and a closed side room in the north with barrel vaults were added to the single-nave west building. The room in the south is covered by four, prism-shaped, ornamented vaults in a row between crosswise belt arches . On the outside, these rest on pillars that appear delicate in relation to the stone roof gables above. Both extensions end in apses in the east.
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On the outer facades of the three cones, triangular niches cut deep into the wall and thus mark the division of space between the central and side apses on the outside. The gable walls are divided vertically by five blind arches, the height of which adjusts to the roof pitch. Only on the west facade of the main nave is this structure missing. The eye-catcher on the otherwise unadorned west gable is a pair of semicircular windows that are framed by twisted double columns on the sides and an octagonal column in the middle. Animals can be seen in the ornamental forms of the blind arches above the two windows. On the left a lion kills a bull (king symbolism), the mythical animals on the right could have Sassanid models. In the middle of the window between the two groups of animals, a bust of a man, who spreads his arms in prayer, looks out from the platform on a pillar towards the viewer. It is either the Syrian columnist Symeon Stylites the Elder (389–459) or the Antioch- born Symeon Stylites the Younger (521–592), who was greatly venerated in the Eastern Churches.
In the high central arch of the south gable, the reliefs of two angels protrude from the facade. The figure on the left is smaller but more carefully executed and depicts the Archangel Michael , on the right the more straightforward Archangel Gabriel can be seen. Their heads are chopped off. The eagle's head is also missing below. He holds a bull in his claws, a symbol of sovereign power.
The most important relief on the outer walls can be found on the south side of the Ostkonchenbau. In the high relief, five 1.46 meters high and 0.7 meters wide figures are shown side by side in high relief three meters above the ground. It is one of the earliest monumental Deësis groups in the Orthodox Church. Christ in the middle in a blessing posture is hardly recognizable, as is John turning to him on the right. On the left side of the middle group stands Mary as Mother of God. The three are surrounded by the founders Bagrat on the left and David III. on the right. Both hand over the model to a church. They are rectangular with halos represented, a sign was that they were still alive, made a painting. The nimbus of David is still partially preserved. A kneeling figure could represent builder Grigol. The row of holes in the outer border contained precious stones.
The tambour is structured all around by 24 blind arches over coupled twisted half-columns, the capitals are decorated with floral patterns, some animals can be recognized. Every second wall field contains a window.
Only a few frescos showing large-format saints have survived inside . According to an inscription, the paintings were commissioned by a patriarch Gagik in 1036. The northern apse could have been painted with angels or apostles. In the south conche, the left fresco fragment shows a crucifixion scene, the right shows a group of people in front of the round church of Bana . In between there are three larger figures, the middle one is interpreted as Jesus with a scroll in his hand. Reliefs with the donors can be seen on the south-western dome pillar. They wear crowns, long robes and a cross in one hand. According to the inscription, the left relief shows David and the right Bagrat.
In the half-open south gallery, the western part of the outer wall is walled up, so the western pillar supporting the dome in this part of the room is difficult to see in the dark. The massive octagonal pillar has a similar capital. The shaft is completely decorated with fine palmette reliefs, at its upper end it merges with the capital with a bulge. On the north side, between the palmettes, stands a man with a beard and a long robe. A total of 15 small heads appear on the pier shaft, some of them have crowns. Possibly they represent members of the Bagratid family, then the bearded man would be the biblical King David , to whom the Bagratids attributed their legend of ancestry. Two angels are shown in different poses on each side of the capital. A standing angel on the southwest side was identified as Archangel Raphael and the two standing angels on the northwest side as Michael and, to the right, Gabriel. At this height, four stone blocks protrude from the pillar shaft, two of which are decorated with relief portraits of the two early Christian healers Cosmas and Damian . They can be recognized by their attributes of probe and vessel in their hands; their heads have been cut off. According to an inscription that has disappeared today, the small bust of a woman with raised hands above Cosmas is said to represent Saint Nino , who is venerated as the first Christian missionary in Georgia.
On the west side of the pillar, above the capital, the bust of a prayer in an ornamental position can be seen, it is interpreted as Symeon the pillar. Recently, a Deësis group with Mary on the left and John on the right of Jesus with a nimbus was cut off from the upper pillar on the west side . Jesus and Mary held scrolls reaching to the ground . The group of three was shown frontally, only the position of the feet showed that the two outer figures were facing Jesus in the middle. On the right, between the palmettes under the Deësis group, a bald bearded man stretches his hands upwards as if in supplication. The accompanying inscription next to the figure, which has practically disappeared today, read: “May Christ have mercy on his servant Grigol.” The long robe with a wide belt shows this Grigol as a civil person, so only the architect of the house of God can be depicted.
30 meters north of the church there was a 34 × 19 meter three-aisled building made of coarse stones, which possibly served as a refectory (dining room). Adjacent to it was a smaller square domed building with a light opening in the middle of the ceiling, which may have served as a scriptorium (writing room in which copies of the manuscripts were made) and library. There are also the remains of three rectangular chapels between 50 and 200 meters southwest of the church. The smaller one with an exterior length of 4.3 × 2.5 meters is relatively well preserved. Of the larger chapel to the east, only small remains remained. It had a main room with a round apse and a low side room with a pent roof built on to the north .
literature
- Wachtang Djobadze: Early Medieval Georgian Monasteries in Historic Tao, Klardjetʿi and Šavšetʿi. (Research on art history and Christian archeology, XVII) Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1992, pp. 92–141
- Volker Eid : East Turkey. Peoples and cultures between Taurus and Ararat . DuMont, Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-7701-1455-8 , pp. 187-193.
- Vera and Hellmut Hell: Turkey. Northern Turkey, Eastern Turkey, Southeast Turkey . 3. Edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart a. a. 1988, p. 100
- Edith Neubauer: Old Georgian architecture. Rock towns, churches, cave monasteries. Anton Schroll, Vienna / Munich 1976, pp. 111–113
- Thomas Alexander Sinclair: Eastern Turkey: An Architectural and Archaeological Survey. Vol. II. The Pindar Press, London 1989, pp. 7 f.
Web links
- The Monastery of Öşk (Öşkvank). choruh.com
- Search results: Ösk. In: Kiel Image Database Middle East. Christian-Albrechts-University, Kiel (45 pictures)