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Arutsch Արուճ |
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| State : |
 Armenia
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| Province : | Aragazotn | ||
| Coordinates : | 40 ° 18 ′ N , 44 ° 5 ′ E | ||
| Height : | 1226 m | ||
| Residents : | 1,223 (2012) | ||
| Time zone : | UTC + 4 | ||
| Community type: | local community | ||
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Arutsch ( Armenian Արուճ ), other romanization Arudsch, Aruch or Aruj, up to 1970 Azerbaijani Talisch , Thalisch, Talish or Talış , is a village and a rural community ( hamaynkner ) in the northern Armenian province of Aragazotn with 1,223 inhabitants in 2012.
One of the largest early Christian churches in Armenia has been preserved on the outskirts. The 7th century Aruchavank Cathedral was dedicated to Saint Gregory ( Surb Grigor ). It is considered the most important example of an Armenian domed hall. This type of building comprises single-nave, longitudinal churches with a central dome. In addition, the ruins of the palace of Grigor Mamikonian were uncovered, who ruled over an Armenian principality from here and is named as the builder of the cathedral. In the Middle Ages, Arutsch was on a long-distance trade route that included a caravanserai , the ruins of which can be seen at the northern junction from today's expressway ( M1 ) to the town.
location
Arutsch is located at an altitude of 1226 meters in a wide plain in the south of Mount Aragaz . From the expressway between Yerevan and Gyumri , about 40 kilometers northwest of the state capital Yerevan and 4.5 kilometers behind Kosch, a road branches off to the left to the west, on which the town center is reached in 1.5 kilometers. The northern approach is somewhat shorter for traffic coming from Gyumri and the small town of Talin , 23 kilometers away . The first hills that belong to the foothills of the Aragaz begin to the north of the expressway. Armavir and other places in the south in the plains that descend further down to the river Aras cannot be reached directly from Arutsch.
The end of a 4.5 km long road to the south is reached in the hamlet of Nor Armanos. At the entrance to the village there is a medieval Muslim cemetery belonging to the Talish, a minority speaking the Iranian language of the same name , which has been known in the South Caucasus since pre-Christian times. The nomadic people live mainly in a mountain area in the southwest of the Caspian Sea , which belongs to Iran and Azerbaijan.
history
Excavation finds in the area show settlement since the Bronze Age . The first written source comes from the 5th century, when the historian Yeghishe Vardapet (410-475) mentioned the old and present name of the place as a winter camp for the army of the Arsacid kings. Arutsch gained importance in the 7th century through Prince Grigor Mamikonian, who ruled under Arab rule from 662 to 685 and made Arutsch his headquarters.
Grigor was a member of the Mamikonian dynasty, which dominated much of historical Armenia from the 4th to the 8th centuries . The Armenian historians Moses von Choren in the 5th and Sebeos in the 7th century claimed that the Mamikonian were descended from nobles from the "land of the Chenk" who came to Armenia in the middle of the 3rd century. According to the most widespread view, “Chenk” means Han Chinese or a Turkic people from the East. The Mamikonian, like the Kamsasrakan and other Armenian aristocratic families who carried the title Nakharar, understood themselves as belonging to the Arsakids. The power struggle between the Byzantines and the Sassanids ended in 428 with the division of the Armenian territory between the two great powers and the dissolution of the Arsacid Empire . On the side of the Byzantines, the Mamikonian then managed to rise to a local power. In the 7th century the Byzantine emperors repeatedly awarded them the title of “Prince of Armenia” (governor) and at least on one occasion in the middle of the 7th century the honorary title of Kuropalates .
In this period of influence and prosperity, the Mamikonians were vassals of the Arabs in the second half of the century, when Prince Grigor Mamikonian and his wife Helen built the palace and cathedral. After the Arabs had conquered the Sassanid Empire in the 630s, they pushed further north, captured 640 Dvin and placed part of the Armenians under their rule. The large number of churches built in the 7th century shows that the Arabs must initially have been tolerant of the Armenian church leaders. In 701 the Umayyads officially annexed Armenia.
According to most art historians, the cathedral was completed between 660 and 670. Josef Strzygowski dated the founding inscription that has survived to the year 668. It reads: “In the 29th year of Constantine, on the 15th day of the month of Mareri, the holy cathedral [...] was built by Gregor Mamikonian, prince of Armenia, and Helene, his Wife - founded as an intercession for her builders. ”Constantine refers to the Byzantine emperor Constantine II, who ruled from 641 to 668, but whose rule lasted not 29, but only 27 years. Strzygowski attributed the error to Armenian historians of the 7th century because an "Anonymous Chronicle" incorrectly noted 29 years of government. Nikolai Jakowlewitsch Marr (1904), Joseph Orbeli (1913) and Georgi Tschubinaschwili (1967) did not consider the inscription to be original because of the style of the language and this error, but rather a much later, incorrectly transcribed copy, which probably dates from the 11th century . For Ulrich Bock (1983) it is also unlikely that Grigor, in his capacity as governor under Arab rule, could have made reference to the opponents in Byzantium in such an important inscription, which is why he relocates the church to the 10th century.
The dispute revolves around the age of the building that exists today and thus this type of building. The dating has an impact because Arutsch is used as a benchmark for the temporal classification of other churches. The fact that a church was built in the middle of the 7th century is evident from the mentions of several contemporary historians regardless of the inscription. So Ghewond wrote in the 8th century: “... and he [Grigor] built the house of prayer in the Aragatsotn area in the village of Arudsch, a temple of glory for the Lord's name, with splendid splendor by decorating it in memory of his name. "Catholicos Johannes reported:" At this time [662–668] the pious Prince Gregor Mamikonian founded the magnificent church in the great village of Arutsch through the divine visit [of the Spirit]. [...] and on the southern side he built his palace on the edge of the stony gorge, in which a shimmering spring rises. And then he arranges his house and walled it with [a wall of] large stones and mortar. ”The historian Wardan further stated that Grigor Mamikonian had the church of Arutsch during the term of office of Catholicos Anastas († 668) and also during this time have the church built in Jeghward .
The end of the Mamikonian rule was hastened by clashes with the rival Bagratids , whose capital was not far away in Ani . The Mamikonian were completely weakened after unsuccessful uprisings against the Abbasid caliphate from 772 to 775. With the defeat at the Battle of Bagrewand in 775, practically all of the Mamikonian land was lost.
In addition to the founding inscription, three other inscriptions have survived. The second inscription from 987 on the south wall is about a tax and comes from King Smbat II (ruled 976/977 - 989/990). At least at this time, according to the consensus, today's church was complete. The third inscription from 1285, which is located in the tympanum above the south portal, is also about a tax .
The caravanserai was built in the 13th century or later. At that time Arutsch was an important trading post on the branching Silk Road in Armenia between Tabriz , Dvin and Kars . The road also connected Dvin to Ani. The church dome was probably destroyed by an earthquake. Damage to the tuff masonry could also have resulted from the use of the church as a fortified refuge in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Townscape
In the 2001 census, the official population was 1016. In January 2012, according to official statistics, there were 1223 inhabitants in Arutsch.
The cathedral is located on the northeastern edge of the clustered village, which is criss-crossed by a network of winding asphalt roads. The mostly single-storey houses are scattered within large gardens. Trees and bushes only thrive around the houses, outside the village there is open grassland with scattered fields. There is a grocery store. Near the secondary school in the center of the village, the remains of walls made of large tufa blocks from a fortified structure from the 6th to 13th centuries stand upright. In the old cemetery there are some early Christian tombstones on the ground. Chatschkars are set up at various points in the village , the oldest dating from the 9th / 10th. Century. In the open field between Arutsch and the hamlet of Shamiram a good kilometer to the southeast, further medieval tombstones and a Bronze Age burial place were found.
cathedral
origin
Before the central domed churches , characteristic of Armenian architecture, were built, there was obviously a phase at the beginning of Christianization when longitudinal buildings in the form of single-nave hall churches or three-aisled basilicas were built. The earliest surviving Armenian churches that can be classified in time are basilicas from the 5th and 6th centuries. The oldest central buildings are also known from the 5th century. Its square structure, above which a dome rises with a cylindrical drum interposed , became the basic shape of the later central dome churches. Depending on the substructure of the tambour, a distinction is made between three central building types: The circular tambour rests on the four inner corners of a cross-shaped building ( Lmbatavank , Kamrawor Church in Ashtarak ), on the middle of a square structure ( mastara ) or on four free-standing central pillars. The starting point of the domed central supports is the new construction of the Etchmiadzin Cathedral, dated 485 .
The combination of a three-aisled basilica and central dome results in the domed basilica or longitudinal cross-dome church based on the model of Tekor (early dating from the end of the 5th century). In some cases it was realized by converting an older basilica, with the two pillars in each row of columns being converted into supports of a crossing . The odzun church is a large domed basilica, which dates back to the common assessment in the second half of the 6th century and was built from the beginning in this form. Extensions with conches protruding from the side walls led to classics of Armenian church building (cathedrals by Dvin and Talin , 7th century).
The domed hall of Arutsch (Aruchavank) was created from the combination of a single-nave hall church and central building. Here, not a relatively small dome is supported by four central pillars, but a dome, the diameter of which is almost the entire width of the nave, is supported by wall templates on the side walls. The supporting pillars protruding from the outer walls into the room are connected by wall arcades. The niches formed in this way on the longitudinal walls are viewed as short side arms of a cross-domed church.
The very early church of Zovuni on the east bank of the Aparan reservoir in the province of Aragazotn was probably the beginning of this development. Between 490 and 510 the probably collapsed barrel roof of the single-nave church must have been replaced by a central dome with trumpets over massively reinforced pillars. Alongside Arutsch, the more heavily damaged church of Ptghni from the 7th century is one of the most important representatives of this type. The only domed hall is the Thaddäuskirche in Ddmaschen, which dates back to the end of the 7th century, and is almost completely preserved on the northwest bank of Lake Sevan . It looks more harmonious and gives a better spatial impression of this type of building than the cathedral of Arutsch. Josef Strzygowski, who conceptually introduced the type of domed halls in his standard work on Armenian architecture in 1918, also included the Schoghakat Church in Etschmiadzin. Instead of the construction time he assumed in the 7th century, however, the year 1694, recorded on an inscription, is now considered plausible as the construction date. In the period from the 9th to the 14th century, known as the renaissance of Armenian architecture, the main church of the Marmaschen Monastery, dated around 1029, was built as an archaic domed hall.
Design
The cathedral of Arutsch is called “the holy Katholikon” in the building inscription from 668. The long rectangular room, which measures 34.5 × 17 meters inside, is accessible from three sides and is closed to the east by a horseshoe-shaped apse 3.8 meters deep. On both sides, square side rooms with semicircular apses flank the altar apse. Access is from the nave, and each outer wall has a window opening.
The 2.8 meters inward protruding wall pillars divide the entire room lengthways into three roughly equal parts, with the altar apse and the built-in side rooms shortening the nave in the east. The pillar templates are connected to one another by blind arcades on the side walls and by belt arches that span the room . The transition from this central square to the base circle of the drum is made in the corners by pendentives . The building was restored up to the foot circle of the drum, the upper edge of which is 16.4 meters above today's ground level. The tambour, the dome and the final pyramid roof are missing. The barrel vault in the eastern part merges into the final spherical ceiling of the apse, and the western nave is also vaulted by a barrel roof. The chancel is raised by a bema (platform) opposite the nave, as are the small apses in the adjoining rooms.
In contrast to the Schoghakat Church, the east facade is divided on the outside by two deep triangular niches, as has been typical for many Armenian and Georgian churches since early Christian times. In this case, they allow the sanctuary to receive light through three windows. The nave is well lit by an unusually large number of windows in the longitudinal walls. The three portals had porches whose wall approaches can still be seen. On the long sides, these extensions were closed at the sides. The portal porch in the west, on the other hand, consisted of a square canopy supported by four supports.
The essential element of the external architectural sculpture are horseshoe-shaped ornamental friezes above the arched windows. The east facade is emphasized by three ornamental arches above the triangular niches. They are larger-format equivalents of the window decor. The patterns consist of intersecting circles and diamonds, on the east wall of geometrical stylized vines and grapes. The four outer wall corners are formed into round bars. Fine wickerwork covers the cornice on all sides.
In the upper part of the rear wall of the apse, wall paintings from the time of origin are faintly visible on the plaster residue above the windows. The scene of the passing of the law (Latin: traditio legis ) was shown with a seven-meter-high standing Christ, who holds a scroll in his left hand, while he is flanked further down by the apostles Peter and Paul . Six of the remaining apostles are partially recognizable on the north side. The small remains of the figure of Christ stood on a throne studded with precious stones, similar to the one in Lmbatavank . In the apse calotte, above a frieze with acanthus leaves, was the scene of the Ascension of Christ against a dark blue background.
In 1946 and 1958–1959 the cracked outer walls and the destroyed roof of the church were restored. Archaeologists excavated the ruins of the palace in 1947, then 1950–1952 and 2006–2007.
Palace and other buildings
Immediately south of the church was the palace of Grigor Mamikonian. It consisted of a large reception hall with two rows of three columns each, another hall to the west and a gallery. In the basic plan it is similar to the palace of the Catholicos in Dvin. According to historians, Grigor commissioned his architect to recreate the palace there. The reception hall, of which several layers of the outer walls were restored, had a throne room to the east. In this area there are two capitals found here with mighty side drums. They have reliefs with a rosette made of rolled palm leaves and geometric ornaments on the abaki . One of the capitals is a copy of a capital kept in Dvin. According to Jean-Michel Thierry (1988), the column shafts were made of wood; according to the findings of the excavations in 2006/07, they were made of stone. The ceiling was layered from wooden beams, presumably in the manner of a cantilever vault (Armenian hazaras ), like the roofs of traditional Armenian houses with a smoke opening ( jerdik ) in the middle until the 20th century . The throne is the only known of its kind in Armenia. A 1.3 × 1.6 meter base made of tuff stones was preserved.
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To the east of the palace, the outer walls of a three-aisled basilica hall, standing on a stepped base zone, were rebuilt to a height of a good two meters. Two mighty cruciform pillars in each row divided the 18.7 × 10.7 meter room into a wide central nave and narrow aisles. Judging by the architectural decorations, it seems to be older than the palace and is dated to the 5th or 6th century. The building had rectangular entrances on the north, west and east sides.
Near the northeast corner of this hall was a small single-nave chapel with a round apse protruding over the east wall. Two layers of the masonry were restored. An extensive burial ground extends between the chapel and the cathedral.
caravanserai
At the northern confluence of the local entrance into the expressway, the heavily restored remains of a three-aisled medieval caravanserai of 26.5 × 15 meters can be seen. It belongs to the type of defensive mountain caravanserais. The building is oriented north-south with the entrance on the south side. A 6 meter wide middle barrel vault is separated from the 3.6 meter wide side vaults by round arched pillar arcades. The cattle and the transported goods were stored in the middle hall, while the travelers were accommodated on both sides. The outer walls were windowless and reinforced by round towers to offer protection from attacking robbers. The exposure took place through an opening in the ceiling.
Until the 1980s, only the northern part of the eastern aisle stood. The additions that have been made since then have largely been made with new stone slabs.
literature
- Ulrich Bock: Armenian architecture. History and problems of their research. (25th publication by the architecture department of the Art History Institute of the University of Cologne) Cologne 1983, pp. 168–173
- Burchard Brentjes , Stepan Mnazakanjan, Nona Stepanjan: Art of the Middle Ages in Armenia. Union Verlag (VOB), Berlin 1981
- Patrick Donabédian: Documentation of the art places . In: Jean-Michel Thierry: Armenian Art. Herder, Freiburg / B. 1988, pp. 513f, ISBN 3-451-21141-6
- Josef Strzygowski : The architecture of the Armenians and Europe. Volume 1. Kunstverlag Anton Schroll, Vienna 1918, pp. 190–193 ( online at Internet Archive )
Web links
- Rick Ney: Aragatsotn March . Tour Armenia, 2008, pp. 78-81
- Aruch . Armenian Heritage
- Talish / Aruch. Armenian Studies Program
- Aruchavank . armenica.org (site plan, floor plan)
- Aruch Village . Armeniapedia
- Aruch Cathedral . Armeniapedia
Individual evidence
- ↑ Garnik Asatrian, Habib Borjian: Talish and the Talishis (The State of Research). In: Iran & the Caucasus, Vol. 9, No. 1. Brill, 2005, pp. 43-72
- ^ Robert Bedrosian: China and the Chinese according to 5-13th Century Classical Armenian Sources . ( Memento from December 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: Armenian Review , Vol. 34 No. 1-133, 1981, pp. 17-24
- ↑ Mamikonean . In: Encyclopædia Iranica .
- ↑ Simon Payaslian: The History of Armenia. From the origins to the present . Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2007, p. 47f
- ↑ a b Josef Strzygowski, p. 47
- ↑ Ulrich Bock, p. 169f
- ↑ Josef Strzygowski, p. 47; English translation: http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/03d/0730-0788,_Anonymus,_Ghewond's_History_& (Link not available) In: Robert Bedrosian (Ed.): Armenian Historical Sources of the 5–15 Centuries .
- ↑ Josef Strzygowski, p. 50
- ↑ Aruchavank. Information. armenica.org
- ^ RA 2001 Population and Housing Census Results . armstat.am, p. 52
- ^ RA Aragatsotn March. armstat.am, 2012, p. 245
- ↑ Christina Maranci: Medieval Armenian Architecture. Construction of Race and Nation. (Hebrew University Armenian Studies 2) Peeters, Leuven u. a. 2001, p. 113
- ↑ Stepan Mnazakanjan: Architecture . In: Burchard Brentjes u. a., pp. 69-72
- ↑ Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 76; Zovouni. ( Memento of September 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Armenian Studies Program
- ↑ Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 77
- ↑ Josef Strzygowski, p. 188
- ^ Patrick Donabédian: Documentation of the art places . In: Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 513f
- ↑ Aruch 3: Palace . Armenian Heritage