Akdamar

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Akdamar
The southeast tip of Akdamar Island with the "Church of the Holy Cross". In the background the mountain Çadır
The southeast tip of Akdamar Island with the " Church of the Holy Cross ". In the background the mountain Çadır
Waters Lake Van
Geographical location 38 ° 20 '30 "  N , 43 ° 2' 7"  E Coordinates: 38 ° 20 '30 "  N , 43 ° 2' 7"  E
Akdamar (Turkey)
Akdamar
length 500 m
width 400 m
Highest elevation 1912  m
Residents uninhabited
Plan of the island with the monastery complex
Plan of the island with the monastery complex

Akdamar , also Ahtamar ( Armenian Աղթամար Aghtamar , scientific transliteration Ałt'amar , Kurdish Axtamar ) is the second largest island in Lake Van in Eastern Anatolia ( Turkey ). The island was a palace of the Armenian kings of Vaspurakan from the Artsruni dynasty from 908 to 1021, residence of the Catholicos of Dvin 920/931 - 950/992 and the seat of the Catholicos of Aghtamar from 1116 to 1895 . For a long time Aghtamar was the cultural center of the Armenians in the Armenian highlands .

location

The now uninhabited island is located near Gevaş , around 45 km southwest of Van in Turkey . Akdamar can be reached from there by passenger ferry , which runs frequently but irregularly, especially on weekends. The island is a popular destination for the local population and is popular for swimming.

Origin of name

According to legend, the name of the island is derived from an Armenian king's daughter named T'amar . The island is also called "monastery island". Akdamar is a Turkish corruption of this and means “white vein”.

history

A stele with the inscription of the Urartian king Menua (810 to 785 BC) tells of the construction of an irrigation canal in the land of Erinu . The island was fortified in the fourth century by the Armenian ruling family of the Rschtuni. The founding of a monastery on the island is documented by Theodoros Rštuni in 653 . In the second half of the ninth century, the island came under the rule of the Artsruni .

Church of the Holy Cross

The "Church of the Holy Cross" (recorded 2001).

The island is especially famous for its Armenian church , the " Church of the Holy Cross " (Սուրբ խաչ, Surb Chatsch , scientific transliteration Surb xač ).

The church forms the remainder of a city ​​with a monastery and palace that was built between 915 and 921 by the architect and former sculptor Manuel on behalf of Gagik Arzruni , King of Vaspurakan . Thomas Artsruni , the chronicler of the deeds of King Gagik, reports that the king resided in Van, made Aghtamar his second residence and surrounded the island with towered walls, terraces, gardens, a magnificent palace, a cubic structure with a central dome, and had an arsenal built to which an entire city was attached. The building material was transported across the lake and came from the last Arab outpost on Lake Van, the castle near the village of Kotom (Կոտոմ), in the province of Ałjnik, owned by the Zurarids tribe. The outer walls of the church are richly decorated with reliefs depicting many well-known biblical stories, such as those of Adam and Eve , Jonah and the whale, or David versus Goliath . In addition, 30 animal species were discovered on the reliefs, some of which are now extinct or are about to become extinct. The reliefs show the fauna of Anatolia at that time. Such a rich sculptural decoration was otherwise unknown at the time. In the west, building sculpture did not begin to develop until about 100 years later. Inside the Kreuzkirche, the walls are painted with partially preserved frescoes .

Altar and mural inside the church (taken in 2011).

Until the massacres in 1895 under Abdülhamid II , the church served as a patriarchal cathedral for the regionally important Catholic of Aghtamar of the Armenian Apostolic Church . After the death of the last Catholicos of Aghtamar, Khatschatur III. (1864–1895), the seat remained vacant. In 1910 the diocese of Aghtamar comprised 130 parishes, 203 churches and 70,000 believers. In the course of the Armenian genocide in 1915, the monastery was destroyed, the church plundered and the monks killed.

By resolution of the Ottoman Ministry of Justice and Culture on August 10, 1916, the Catholic of Aghtamar was repealed. In 2005 the Turkish government decided to restore the historic building. On March 29, 2007, the Turkish government opened the medieval Armenian church without a Christian cross as a cultural monument. On September 19, 2010, a Christian service was held in the church for the first time in around 95 years. Previous differences such as placing a cross have been resolved. In addition to Turkish Armenians, many Armenians from Armenia and the USA traveled to the two-hour mass. At the beginning of October a 2 meter tall and 110 kg heavy cross was placed on the church.

Tourist information sign in front of the church (taken in 2011).

See also

literature

  • Sirarpie The Nersessian : Aght'amar: Church of the Holy Cross . Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1965
  • Stepan Mnatsakanian: Aghtamar . English translation KH Maksoudian, Editions Erebouni, Los Angeles, 1986
  • Susanna Partsch : Art Epochs , Volume 1 Early Christian and Byzantine Art . Reclam's Universal Library No. 18168, Reclam, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-15-018168-2 , p. 146 ff.
  • Josef Strzygowski : The architecture of the Armenians and Europe , I, II, Vienna 1918.
  • Herman Vahramian: Akhtamar . Oemme edizioni, Milan 1988

Web links

Commons : Akdamar  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Alfred Renz: Land around the Ararat. Eastern Turkey - Armenia . Prestel, Munich 1983, p. 271 f.
  2. ^ Gérard Dédéyan (éd.): Histoire du peuple arménien . Editions privat, Toulouse 2007, ISBN 978-2-7089-6874-5 , pp. 931 f.
  3. ↑ a b c Robert H. Hewsen: Armenia. A Historical Atlas . The University of Chicago Press, Chicago / London 2001, p. 208
  4. ↑ Jeremy Seal: A Fez of the Heart: Travels around Turkey in Search of a Hat . P. 226
  5. ↑ Volker Eid: East Turkey: Peoples and Cultures between Taurus and Ararat . P. 261
  6. ↑ Н. В. Арутюнян: Корпус уратсқих қлинообразных надписеӣ. Ереван, Гитутюн 2001, 100
  7. ↑ HFB Lynch: Armenia, Travels and Studies . 3. Edition. Armenian Prelacy, New York, 1990, Volume 2, p. 131
  8. ^ A b Robert H. Hewsen: Armenia. A Historical Atlas . The University of Chicago Press, Chicago / London 2001, p. 116
  9. ↑ Theotoros Lapchindschian: The Golgotha ​​of the Armenian clergy (Գողգոթա Հայ Հոգեւորականութեան Եւ Իր Հօտին Աղէտալի 1915 Տարին), Constantinople 1921, p. 29 ff.
  10. ↑ Aram Ter-Ghewondyan: The Arab Emirates in Bagratid Armenia , Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon 1976, p. 71
  11. ^ Article of the radical of May 21, 2010
  12. ^ Richard G. Hovannisian (editor): Armenian Van / Vaspurakan . Mazda Publishers, Costa Mesa CA 2000, ISBN 1-56859-130-6 , p. 85
  13. ^ Rafael de Nogales: Four Years Beneath the Crescent . Sterndale Classics, London 2003, ISBN 1-903656-19-2 , p. 60
  14. ^ Raymond Kévorkian : Le Génocide des Arméniens . Odile Jacob, Paris 2006, p. 850 f.
  15. ↑ Van: Service in the Akdamar Church. ( Memento of the original from March 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. trtdeutsch.com @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.trtdeutsch.com
  16. ↑ Let's go out to Lake Van . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung , September 19, 2010, p. V 2
  17. ↑ Turkey allows first Armenian worship . Zeit Online , September 19, 2010