Ashtarak
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Ashtarak Աշտարակ |
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| State : |
 Armenia
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| Province : | Aragazotn | ||
| Coordinates : | 40 ° 18 ′ N , 44 ° 22 ′ E | ||
| Height : | 1139 m | ||
| Residents : | 21,764 (2012) | ||
| Time zone : | UTC + 4 | ||
| Telephone code : | (+374) 232 | ||
| Postal code : | 0201-0205 | ||
| Community type: | city | ||
| Mayor : | Towmas Shahverdjan (independent) | ||
| Website : | |||
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Ashtarak ( Armenian Աշտարակ ), other romanization Ashtarak, Aštarak , is the capital of the northern Armenian province of Aragazotn . The city, conveniently located north of Yerevan , is known as a destination for visitors from the state capital. Four medieval churches, of which the Karmrawor Church (Mother of God Chapel, Surb Astvatsatsin ), a small cross-domed church from the 7th century, and the Mariana Church ( Surb Mariane ), dated 1281 , have been completely preserved, and other monuments testify to uninterrupted settlement since early Christian times . Ashtarak is a center of the food processing industry.
location
Ashtarak lies at an altitude of 1139 meters on a plain on both sides of the Kassagh , which cuts through the city from northeast to southwest in a deep gorge and separates the greater part with the old town center in the north from a new district in the south. The Kassagh flows south from the Aparan reservoir into the Mezamor , which flows into the Macaws a little later . The irrigated grain and vegetable fields in the area are mainly supplied via canals from the Kassagh. The groundwater depth of 35–65 meters is tapped with deep boreholes for the drinking water supply and field irrigation. The bedrock of Quaternary lava emerges in the Kassagh Gorge in the form of basalt , andesite , dacite and tuff . The fields and meadows around Ashtarak belong to the southeastern foothills of the Aragaz , whose volcanic massif rises to 4090 meters. In the north the plain is bounded by the 2575 meter high, also volcanic mountain Ara ( Ara lehr ), in the east it merges into the highlands of Jeghward.
Ashtarak, 19 kilometers away, can be reached from Yerevan via the M1 expressway , which leads past the next village in the west, Agarak (seven kilometers) to Talin (46 kilometers) to Gyumri (92 kilometers) in the north-west of the country. An alternative connection to the north is the M3 , which branches off the M1 in Ashtarak and reaches Spitak (57 kilometers) past the east side of the Aragaz . Parallel to the M3 and close to the Kassagh Gorge, a side road connects the city center of Ashtarak with the suburb of Mughni two kilometers to the north and the following villages of Karbi and - five kilometers from Mughni - the village of Ohanavan with the Howhannawank monastery , until it passes further five kilometers ends at Saghmosawank Monastery . Etschmiadzin (17 kilometers) can be reached directly via the continuation of the M3 to the south or in a south-westerly direction via Oschakan (four kilometers). On a side road via Jeghward (22 kilometers) to the east, you can bypass Yerevan on the way to Lake Sevan .
history
Remains of fortified settlements with walls made of large stone blocks from the Bronze Age have been found in and around Ashtarak . An important early Bronze Age cult center (from 3400 BC) was in the plain near Agarak, a fortress from the Early Iron Age stood northwest of Ashtarak on a 2200 meter high hill near the village of Avan above Kosch . A settlement on the outskirts of Oschakan dates back to the Late Bronze Age (from the 15th century BC), in its place in the first half of the 1st millennium BC. A Urartean fortress was built. The name Ashtarak means "tower" or "fortress" and refers to the fact that the place was strategically located to control the valley and the access to the heights of the Aragaz with the settlements there, especially the fortress Amberd .
In early Christian times, Ashtarak was subordinate to the bishopric of Oshakan and served as its upstream defense post. From the 7th to the 9th centuries, Armenia was under the rule of the Arabs, who had conquered the capital Dvin in 640 . In the 880s, the Bagratids took over the leadership role among rival Armenian noble families and recaptured the capital. Under the Bagratids, Ashtarak developed into a major trading center on the trade route that led from Persia via Dvin north to Georgia. The city maintained its economic position under the subsequent rule of the Seljuks in the 11th century, Mongols in the 13th century and into the 20th century, while Oshakan remained limited to its religious importance as a place of pilgrimage. A food industry was established under the Soviet administration . Research facilities based in the city were connected to the observatory in Bjurakan and another observatory in Orgov.
With independence in 1991, as in other industrial locations, there was an economic decline, which was somewhat cushioned by the proximity to the city of Yerevan. Ashtarak has been the administrative center of Aragazotn Province since 1995. Since then, the economic focus has been on food and beverage production, including the processing of dairy products.
Cityscape
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In the 2001 census, the official population of Ashtarak was given as 21,475. In the official statistics for January 2012, 21,764 inhabitants are named.
The old town with winding streets, all the monuments and most of the utilities is on the western, right bank of the Kassagh. The residential area in the south of the gorge, which is planned in a rectangular street grid, consists mainly of rows of single-family houses along the streets with large house gardens behind them. The industrial companies have settled on the outskirts at the transition to the small-parceled fields in the area. The M1, which has been converted into a motorway in this section, crosses the gorge in the east of the city and separates the center from the northern suburb of Mughni , which was evaluated as an independent village in the 2001 census and has since been considered a district of Ashtarak. In addition to the motorway bridge, a medieval stone bridge crosses to the west of it, a pedestrian bridge in the city center and another large bridge for the M3 to the south of the Kassagh gorge. The latter bridge represents the direct connection from the east exit of the M1 through the southern residential area to Narekatsu Street in the center and further west to the M1 towards Gyumri.
The oldest and in the Middle Ages only bridge in the city from 1664 consists of three pointed arches of different heights and lies on a sharp bend in the river, where it was protected from high tides. Because of the steep cliffs of the gorge at this point, it could be defended well. The remains of an Urartian fortress from the 7th century BC Above are reminiscent of previous buildings that once crossed the river at this strategically important point. The only church south of the Kassagh is the small St. Sergius Church ( Surb Sargis ) on the edge of the gorge above the bridge. On the foundation of a destroyed older church, it was rebuilt in 1986 as an imitation of a cross-domed church from the 13th century. Below the Urartian fortress is a section of a 1st millennium BC. The canal irrigation system laid out in BC was preserved, which is a forerunner of the Arzni-Shamiram Canal, which was developed in Soviet times and expanded since the turn of the millennium, which drains water from Lake Sevan via the Hrasdan and also from the Kassagh and distributes it in the plains of the Aragazotn province. The path into the gorge north of the medieval bridge leads past an empty bathhouse from the 18th / 19th century. Century past, which was fed with warm mineral water.
The main shopping street is Nerses Ashtaraketsi Street, which runs from the southern bridge parallel to Kassagh to the north towards Mughni. The house museum of Pertsch Proschian (1837–1907), a writer and teacher who grew up in Mughni and is valued for his services to the modernization of Armenian culture and society, is located on Proschian Street. Local music and folk dance groups occasionally perform in the centrally located Kulturhaus.
The medieval churches are spread out within a radius of about half a kilometer in the northern part of the center. The existence of three churches establishes a legend. According to this, three sisters once lived in the city who were all in love with the same prince named Sargis. The two older sisters decided to commit suicide to leave the youngest's lover. When they threw themselves into the ravine, one of the older sisters was wearing an apricot-colored dress and the other was wearing a red dress. When the youngest sister found out about this, she put on a white dress (white is the color of the wedding dress) and fell to her death after her sisters. Three churches were named after the colors of their clothes: Tsiranawor, "the apricot-colored", Karmrawor, "the red" and Spitakawor, "the white". The three churches are near the gorge, some distance to the northwest is the Mariana Church ( Surb Mariane ).
Tsiranawor
The earliest, roughly datable Armenian churches are basilicas from the 5th and 6th centuries. The oldest church in the city, "the apricot-colored" one on the edge of the gorge is only preserved as a ruin. The three-aisled basilica is undated. The lower stone rows of the apse, part of the north wall and some other remains could come from the end of the 5th century, a second construction phase belongs to the 6th century, probably during the time of the Catholicos Nerses II of Ashtarak (548–557). Nerses led a council in Dvin in 555 , at which, as before, the doctrine of Nestorianism was vehemently condemned. In Dvin he had a Nestorian church destroyed. Tsiranawor could have been built in memory of the birthplace of the Catholicos.
The external dimensions are 25.3 × 11.5 meters. A 3.85 meter wide central nave was separated from the narrower aisles with a width of 1.74 meters by two rows, each with three T-shaped pillars. Belt arches connected the pillars lengthways and crossways to the side walls. The three naves were covered by barrel vaults . The southern row of pillars is still upright, while of the northern only the lowest stone of each pillar and the support ( strut ) on the apse corner have been preserved. The position of two pilasters on the north wall does not correspond to the pillars, they belong to the first construction phase in the 5th century. According to the assumptions of Brentjes and Mnazakanjan, as well as Donabédian and Thierry, they served as supports for an originally wooden roof structure, which was replaced in the 6th century by the installation of pillars and vaults. According to another reconstruction, the pillars are said to have originally supported a central dome with trumpet crossings, while Plontke compares the original structure with a wide arcade basilica of the Syrian type . During the renovation, the church received a double window in the gable of the west wall, and the upper area of the other walls and the apse were also changed. An entrance is in the middle of the south wall, the original, later walled up, in the west wall.
Next to the horseshoe-shaped apse were two rectangular side rooms, which could be entered from the side aisles and which closed off the building with a straight wall on the outside. A narrow window illuminated each of the three rooms, the middle window measures 2.32 x 0.63 meters. With the straight east wall, Tsiranawor corresponds to the basilicas of Jereruk (Yererouk) near Anipemza (province of Shirak , on the Turkish border) from 5./6. Century and Tsitsernavank ( Laçın Rayon in Azerbaijan, in fact Kaschatach Province in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic , 5th / 6th century). The basilica of Jeghward (around 600) has almost the same basic plan . Their roof was also originally constructed with wooden beams. Tsitsernavank belonged to the basilicas of the " Hellenistic type" with a separate roof over the central nave raised by an upper aisle, while Tsiranawor and the basilica of Aparan (formerly Kasagh, early 5th century) corresponded to the "eastern type", whose central nave was only slightly raised is covered by a single gable roof. In addition to the five mentioned, there is only one other basilica in Armenia from pre-Arab times. This stood in the village of Aghtsk (Dzorap) two kilometers north-west of Agarak (possibly mid-4th century, reconstruction at the end of the 5th century).
The sculptures on the outer walls include the remains of a cornice with a tooth cut on the north facade, on the west wall a cross medallion with arms of equal length on the lintel and on the double window above another flat cross relief with grapes on the upper arm and peacocks on both sides.
An inscription dated 1013 by King Gagik I Bagratuni (r. 989-1020) on the north facade notes restorations. In the 17th century, the building was expanded like a fortress and the north and south sides were reinforced with an outer wall. The south wall was obviously completely renewed. By 1815, earthquakes and neglect had ruined the church. During his visit in autumn 1913, Josef Strzygowski found the interior filled with rubble from the collapsed vaults. In 1963 the existing walls were cleared of rubble, and some khachkars came to light.
Karmrawor
The Chapel of Our Lady ( Surb Astvatsatsin ), popularly known as Karmrawor ("the red one"), is the second oldest church in the city from the second half of the 7th century. In addition to the legend, its nickname is also related to the red roof tiles laid in the mortar bed, which are said to come from the original building. It is located about 200 meters northwest of Tsiranawor and belongs to a type of small cross-domed churches that are characteristic of the 7th century. At the beginning of their development there were small tetracones with four semicircular cones starting in a cross shape, which are encased in a rectangle and appear outside as a free cross. The four inner corners of the walls are connected to one another by belt arches that support a drum with a dome. The top is a pyramid or conical roof. These include the Zion Church ( Mankanoz ) in Oschakan and Hogevank near Sarnaghbyur. The Church of Our Lady of Talin and the Church of Ananius by Alaman (dated 637) have the same external shape, but with three semicircular cones and a western arm with a rectangular interior . The third possibility of the inner wall closure are the monocons with a semicircular altar apse in the east and three rectangular side arms in the other directions. The best preserved free monocons of the 7th century are Karmrawor, the church Lmbatavank near Artik and the St. Sergius church from Bjni near Hrasdan . Most of the buildings of this type, like Karmrawor, are undated and can only be chronologically classified by comparing styles.
The external dimensions of the Mother of God Chapel are about 6 × 7.5 meters. The transition from the base square of the belt arches to the inside and outside octagonal tambour is made by four trumpets in the corners. Above, eight smaller trumpets, which consist of a single brick, lead over to the dome circle. The interior is dimly lit by a round arched window on the east and south sides as well as smaller window slots in the main axes of the drum walls. The interior walls are unadorned. A curtain on the altar apse shows that the chapel is used for services.
The only entrance is on the west side. The decoration on the outer walls is limited to horseshoe-shaped friezes above the windows, which are decorated with braided bands, zigzag patterns and intertwined leaves. The cornice is decorated with a basket weave pattern, the outer end with a double braided wavy line. Incised crosses (pilgrim crosses) on the outer walls were commissioned as a pious deed. In an undated single-line building inscription that begins on the south side and extends to the north side, a founder named Dawit and the priests Gregor and Manas are named. Paintings from the 7th century were visible on the walls of Tsiranawor and Karmrawor.
Like most small cross-domed churches, Karmrawor was built as a grave church and is surrounded by an old cemetery. According to an inscription, the surrounding wall dates from 1254. A porch on the west side from the 19th century was demolished during the 1960 restoration.
In the cemetery north of the chapel there are several khachkars from the 13th, 14th and 17th centuries. Below is a stone dated 1184 with a cross surrounded by flower tendrils and a particularly finely reliefed Khachkar of the "Holy Sign", also cak k'ar ("perforated stone"), from 1268 with a protruding cross and a rectangular recess in the base.
Mariana Church
The St. Marian Church ( Surb Mariane ), dated 1281, is located apart from the two churches in the north-west of the center near Proschian Street. From the courtyard of the Mother of God Chapel, you can see the slender drum with the high pyramid roof that protrudes between the houses and trees. The year is given by an inscription that refers to a foundation. The church, located in a well-tended park, belonged to a monastery, which is evident from an inscription from 1317, in which the construction of a guest house and the restoration of the surrounding wall is mentioned.
Like Karmrawor, the Mariana Church is a cross-domed church with monoconchos, but supplemented by ancillary rooms built into the outer corners, which results in a completely encased building with rectangular outer walls. This type of floor plan, whose most obvious line of development emanates from the free cross arms of the Karmrawor Church, allows a diverse design of the ancillary rooms. In the approximately square central buildings with four side rooms, between those with independent corner rooms, which are only connected to the side arms via a passage (for the first time in the church in K'arkop'ivank ' from 911, province of Sjunik ) and those with open corner rooms distinguished on the west side. The Mariana Church belongs to the latter.
Its external dimensions are 11.45 × 8.88 meters. The horseshoe-shaped apse is surrounded by narrow two-story side rooms that are connected to the similarly narrow north and south cross arms. The cross arm in the west is still rectangular, but much longer. The western corner rooms have become wide niches that are separated by partition walls. The partition walls protruding into the room act as wall templates on which, together with the wall corners of the apse, the central belt arches of the tambour substructure rest. A slight change in the floor plan - the abandonment of the partition walls - leads to the encased cross-domed churches with two free-standing pillars in the west, the most famous example of which in Armenia is the Areni Church , dated 1321 . The transition from the crossing to the inside circular, outside twelve-sided drum is made by pendentives . The slender drum and the steep pyramid roof with its vertical ribs give the building an upward tendency, which is typical of the period after the Mongol invasion in the first half of the 13th century.
The church has an entrance in the west and one in the south. The latter is unusually shifted to the west from the dome axis and thus also from the window above it, which is centered on the gable wall. The wall panels of the drum are bordered by flaps that form a horseshoe-shaped top. The same round profiles, which are laterally expanded by crosses in the manner of a quatrefoil , frame the windows. At the east window a profile extended downwards leads to the edge of the base. This motif was widespread in the 13th century and is also found in Georgian sacred architecture.
In 1838 a small lantern made of four pillars, which does not contain a bell, was placed on the ridge above the main south entrance . A large elongated extension in front of the west side from the beginning of the 20th century consists of brick outer walls and a provisional gable roof supported by two rows of wooden posts. It stands empty while the church is set up for services. In 1977 the park was created around the church.
Spitakawor
Immediately on the edge of the gorge near Tsiranawor are the ruins of the Spitakawor Church ("the white one"), which has nothing to do with the former Spitakavor monastery in the south of the country. Of the church, which can only be roughly assigned to the 13th or 14th century, four gable walls with an approximately square floor plan of 4.61 × 4.85 meters have been preserved. They presumably encompassed a cruciform plan above which a central drum with a dome rose.
A previous building in the form of a small hall church is said to have been built on the site at the beginning of the 4th century. The stepped base could be even older and go back to pre-Christian times. The cuboids made of reddish tuff are carefully assembled, but without decoration. The two entrances are in the west and south walls.
Sports
The five-time Armenian soccer cup winner MIKA Ashtarak , who plays his home games in a stadium in Yerevan, competes for the city.
sons and daughters of the town
- Norair Sissakjan (1907–1966), Armenian-Soviet biochemist, astrobiologist and university professor
literature
- 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. 515f, ISBN 3-451-21141-6
- Annegret Plontke-Lüning: Early Christian architecture in the Caucasus. The development of Christian sacred buildings in Lazika, Iberia, Armenia, Albania and the border regions from the 4th to the 7th century (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class, Volume 359. Publications on Byzantium Research, Volume XIII) Verlag der Österreichische Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2007, pp. 260–270, ISBN 978-3700136828
- Josef Strzygowski : The architecture of the Armenians and Europe. Volume 1. Kunstverlag Anton Schroll, Vienna 1918, 146–148 ( at Internet Archive )
See also
Web links
- Rick Ney: Aragatsotn March . Tour Armenia, 2008, pp. 18–24
- Ashtarak Town. Armeniapedia
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://ashtarak.am/Pages/Staff/ (accessed January 4, 2020)
- ^ Reconstruction of water supply systems of town Ashtarak and nearby 4 villages. World Bank Document, 2013, p. 17
- ^ Adam T. Smith, Koriun Kafadarian: New Plans of Early Iron Age and Urartian Fortresses in Armenia: A Preliminary Report on the Ancient Landscapes Project. In: Iran, Vol. 34, 1996, pp. 23-37, here p. 28
- ↑ Ashtarak . ( Memento of the original from June 27, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. officespace.am
- ^ RA 2001 Population and Housing Census Results . armstat.am, p. 51
- ^ RA Aragatsotn March. armstat.am, 2012, p. 246
- ^ Bulletin 10-11. MCA Publication, April – September 2009, p. 13
- ↑ Christina Maranci: Medieval Armenian Architecture. Construction of Race and Nation. (Hebrew University Armenian Studies 2) Peeters, Leuven u. a. 2001, p. 113
- ^ Mesrob K. Krikorian: The Armenian Church. Materials on Armenian history, theology and culture. Peter Lang, Frankfurt / M. 2002, p. 32
- ↑ Josef Strzygowski, p. 146
- ↑ Stepan Mnazakanjan: Architecture . In: Burchard Brentjes u. a., p. 60
- ↑ Annegret Plontke-Lüning, p. 261 (cites Halabiya as an example )
- ^ Patrick Donabédian: Documentation of the art places . In: Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 515
- ↑ Jean-Michel Thierry, pp. 49, 494
- ↑ Annegret Plontke-Lüning, enclosed CD-ROM: Catalog of preserved church buildings , p. 50
- ↑ Ciranowor / Tsiranowor . ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 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. Armenian Studies Program
- ↑ Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 67
- ↑ Stepan Mnazakanjan: Architecture. In: Burcherd Brentjes, p. 64
- ^ Nona Stepanjan: Wall painting, book illumination and applied arts. In: Burchard Brentjes u. a., p. 239
- ^ Patrick Donabédian: Documentation of the art places . In: Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 515; Karmravor / Garmravor . ( Memento of the original from May 12, 2008 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. Armenian Studies Program
- ^ Patrick Donabédian: Documentation of the art places . In: Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 516
- ↑ Rick Ney: Aragatsotn Marz , p. 21
