Awan (Yerevan)

Awan (Ավան) district of Yerevan
height	1275  m
surface	8.37 km²
Residents	53,100 (2015)
Population density	6344 inhabitants / km²
Website	yerevan.am/en/districts/avan
politics
mayor	Ara Danieljan

Awan ( Armenian Ավան 'settlement' , often as the suffix -awan ), another romanization Avan , is one of twelve districts of the Armenian capital Yerevan . The village on a hill on the north-eastern edge of Yerevan, which has existed since pre-Christian times, was incorporated into the rapidly expanding city by new building districts at the end of the 20th century. From the end of the 6th century, the ruins of the oldest church in the urban area of ​​Yerevan have been preserved: The Awan Cathedral ( Tsiranawor ) was one of the most important radially-shaped domed churches and gave its name to the "Awan- Hripsime type", a characteristic style of Armenian sacred architecture . At that time, Awan was the seat of a pro- Byzantine counter- Catholic who represented not the Armenian apostolic but the Chalcedonian denomination , which was the majority in Armenia . Other sacred buildings from the early Christian era to the late Middle Ages are located in the middle of a residential area that has still retained a certain village character.

Village residential areas are circled by new urban apartment blocks.

location

The administrative district ( Armenian թաղային համայնքները , "neighborhood community") borders with three other Yerevan districts: in the north on Arabkir , in the west on Kanaker-Sejtun and in the south on Nor Nork . In the East Awan forms the border with the province of Yerevan Kotayk . Awan is a hilly area with heights of an average of 1250 to 1300 meters, which is a good 150 meters higher than the city center. The district lies within a triangle formed by the M4 expressway , which leaves the center northwards towards Lake Sevan and the road eastwards to Garni . The western border to Kanaker-Sejtun is partly formed by the railway line.

history

In the second synod of Dvin 554/555 it was decided to emphasize the independence of the monophysite Armenian church compared to Nestorianism and to make this visible by building new churches. Large churches arose in the places of activity of Christian martyrs who had fought against paganism. In 591 the Persian Sassanids left the area they had administered as Persarmenia since 428 to the Byzantine Empire . When the cathedral was being built around this time, there was a religious dispute between supporters of the ancient oriental church , whose tenets of belief later became generally binding for the Armenian Christians, and the Byzantine group , which recognized the results of Chalcedon . While the Eastern Catholicos resided in the capital Dvin, according to Christian tradition, which refers to the 7th century historian Sebeos , the Byzantine Catholicos Hovhannes Bagavanetsi (Antikatholikos) left in Awan, which at the time belonged to the territory of Byzantium Build a cathedral and an adjacent palace. He was in office from 590/591 and was driven out by his Persian opponents in the conquest of Area 603. The Catholicos died in 604. Other researchers assume an earlier construction date 582-584. Then Hovhannes would have found an already completed church and declared it his official residence. The even earlier dating of Josef Strzygowski (1918) to the term of office between 557 and 574 of another Hovhannes, to whom Sebeos is said to have referred, is rejected today.

An unusual inscription from the 7th century, written in Armenian and Greek, which was originally located on an exterior facade of the cathedral, presumably deals with the conversion of Catholicos Ezr to the Byzantine faith in the year 632. Several inscriptions from the 13th century are known the oldest from 1219. Above all, an inscription by the Georgian King David VIII (r. 1293–1311) indicates that Awan continued to be the center of a community that renounced the Armenian Apostolic Church. The inscriptions deal with foundations, whereby the phrase “unity of thought” could refer to the divine and human nature of Christ as defined in Chalcedon. At an unknown time, the church fell into disrepair, particularly badly damaged by an earthquake in 1679.

When, according to the general plan of the Russian-Armenian architect Alexander Tamanian, between 1924 and 1934 the old inner city of Yerevan was completely redesigned according to the modern requirements of a capital for the expected population of 150,000 to 200,000, the surrounding villages, separated by grassland, retained their rural character. In the mid-1960s, construction began on cheap Soviet apartment blocks with more than the four or five stories Tamanian had previously determined. The number of inhabitants had already reached one million in the 1980s. In 2009 the population of around 1.2 million was roughly the same as in 1988, after having briefly increased to 3.45 million in 1995 with the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict . The consequence of this unplanned population growth was in the Soviet time, the development of areas with uniform blocks, which have since the end of the 20th century reached the village residential areas of Awan and enclosed.

Townscape

Marshal Khudiakov Street to the northeast

In the 2001 census, the district's official population was 50,118. According to official statistics, 51,000 people lived in Awan in January 2012. The area of ​​the district is 8.37 square kilometers. Mayor of Awan is Manvel Javadyan.

The district of Awan is divided into the municipalities of Avan-Arinj (in the north), Narekaci (east of it), Hovhannisyan (south of the latter), Aghi Hanq and Avan (eastern tip) and the residential units Isahakyan and Tumanyan. There are other area names. The direct route from the center passes the Yerevan Botanical Garden , which forms the south-western part of the district. There, Marshal Khudiakov Street turns off from Acharyan Street in a north-easterly direction, which climbs steadily and reaches the rural residential area of ​​Awan Arinj after a good kilometer. Its center is a cemetery with some old tombstones and a memorial for the Second World War.

The ruins of the cathedral, 300 meters away from the crossroads at the monument, can be reached via a winding lane that branches off to the left. The ruins of two small early Christian sacred buildings, the St. John's Chapel ( Surb Hovhannes ) and the Chapel of Our Lady ( Surb Astvatsatsin ), are 500 meters further from the cemetery on Marshal Khudiakov Street, at the fourth alley on the right, another 200 meters to the left and finally a footpath then hidden between houses and allotments. Alternatively, they can be reached from the top of the cemetery along a wide road to the east from above. A strip of grassland that has not yet been built over separates the old settlement with two-story single-family houses within walled gardens from a new district with large apartment blocks that were built after the turn of the millennium.

cathedral

origin

Former church hall with access through the west cone. The best-preserved northwest corner niche serves as a prayer room.

The cathedral ( Katoghike ) Sankt Johannes ( Surb Hovanes ), popularly Tsiranawor ("apricot-colored"), is the oldest central domed church with four conches and corner niches within a rectangular structure. Models of the central Armenian buildings can be found with a certain probability in Syria and Mesopotamia. The Tetrakonchen systems of Seleucia Pieria (middle 6th century) or Resafa (beginning 6th century) are mentioned. Even the oldest central Armenian buildings of the 5th century are characterized by a square structure that is covered by a dome with a cylindrical drum in between . The extension of this basic shape was made by semicircular cones on each of the four sides, which increases the interior space and the shear forces of the dome can be better diverted sideways.

For the static substructure of the dome, three constructive options, used in parallel in Armenia, come into consideration: In the oldest preserved tetraconchus in Armenia, the new construction of the Etchmiadzin Cathedral (Etschmiadzin II) around 485, the dome rests on four free-standing central pillars. Only the completely destroyed Bagaran Cathedral from the 630s corresponded to this type, which was otherwise not pursued further. In addition, smaller cross-shaped central buildings were built in the 7th century, often with three conches such as Lmbatavank , the Church of Our Lady of Talin or the Kamravor Church of Ashtarak , whose drum and dome are supported by the inner wall corners. The St. John's Church in Mastara is based on the third possibility . Its much larger dome spans the entire square interior to the middle of the outer walls. It represents the starting point for a group of central buildings known as the “mastara type”. Regardless of the chronological sequence, which cannot be precisely determined, the Mother of God Church ( Surb Astvatsatsin ) from Voskepar ( Azerbaijani Əskipara) indicates from the 7th century On the border of the province of Tavush with Azerbaijan towards the Church of Mastara there were some unfavorable changes. The four conches and the two eastern side rooms are elongated to form a rectangle, which dissects the shape and makes it less secure. Against this background, the development of the Awan-Hripsime type seems logical. In fact, the churches, which can usually only be classified chronologically on the basis of style features, did not necessarily emerge according to an idealized development from simpler (i.e. tetracones without corner niches) to more complex forms (with corner niches).

The Awan Hripsime type, at the point of which the cathedral of Awan can be seen, means an enlargement compared to the Mastara type and a structural improvement due to the corner struts. The Tetrakonchos with the dome over the inner wall corners is encased in this type not only in the east, but on all sides by rectangular outer walls. This is how the Tetrakonchos with four corner niches was created, which Josef Strzygowski counted as one of the "radial domed buildings" in 1918. The other eponymous building of this type is the Hripsime Church of Echmiadzin. Variations of both churches are known in different sizes, for example the St. John's Church in Sissian, completed around 691, and the St. George's Church in Garnahovit northeast of Mastara in the province of Aragazotn .

Possible precursors of the Awan-Hripsime type are being sought outside of Armenia in Transcaucasia . The earliest example in Georgia is the cathedral of Ninozminda from the 6th century, an uncovered tetraconch with half-round side rooms protruding from the corners. In the village of Moxrenis (Mochrenis, Azerbaijani Susanlıq) in the Xocavənd Rayon , which is controlled by the Republic of Arzach (formerly Nagorno Karabakh), the church Okhte Dernin Vank (Okht Drne Monastery) has this shape , the upright wall of which can only be vaguely dated to the 5th or 6th centuries Century. In general, Georgian Tetrakonchen with corner niches outside polygonal and leave the room arrangement on the outside wall seen, such as the Sioni Church of Ateni from the 7th century and the monastery church Jvari in Mtskheta to 590-605. The Armenian churches, which are generally more reserved in design, usually only show the position of the conches through triangular niches cut into the outer wall.

Design

West facade with portal

The reconstructed floor plan of the former church forms a rectangle with the external dimensions of around 15 × 18 meters. In the main east-west direction the church is 15.6 meters long inside. The somewhat larger length compared to the transverse direction is due to short barrel-vaulted connecting links that are interposed between the conches in the east and west and the central church area, but are missing in the north and south. All four conches are horseshoe-shaped and extend symmetrically from the square central space. In the four corners, small niches forming a three-quarter circle serve as access to the circular corner rooms. The passage rooms have a diameter of 2.2 meters, the corner rooms about 3.4 meters. These additions to the space in the diagonals create a radiant floor plan, the complexity of which is completely hidden by the solid, straight outer walls.

The upper zone of the building, which had disappeared, was supported by an 8.41 meter large central wall square. From the remains of the rubble, it can be reconstructed that the transition from the square to the base circle of the dome was formed by eight funnel niches in the corners between the conical arches and the arches of the side rooms. These irregular triangular vaults were the first known preforms of pendentives in Armenia, which later generally took the place of the older trumpets . The four corner rooms were also vaulted by domes, the height of which is unknown. Either they were hemispheres that lay directly above the corner rooms or - as Toros Toramanjan said at the beginning of the 20th century - were emphasized by means of windowed tambours, which would have resulted in a domed structure with a quincunx arrangement.

The church was entered on the west side through a wide portal, the monumental gable framing of which a simpler version of the portals on the basilica of Jereruk from the 5th / 6th centuries. Century (near the Turkish border across from Ani ). Two columns with cubic capitals standing in front of the wall support a 1.76 meter high round arch with a bulge profile and tooth cut , which is closed off by a gable roof. Below that, two rows of stones form a round arch that relieves the lintel over a much smaller round arched door. The rectangular frame of the door, which was later reduced in size, is decorated with longitudinal grooves and circles, as is the case with other churches from the 7th century. The horseshoe-shaped arched friezes above the windows begin with a row of stones below the arch and directly enclose the window cutout. The wall corners are formed by the three-quarter rods that were widely used in later Armenian churches. In the middle of the west facade, a section of the cornice with a profiled hollow, the shape of which comes from ancient Greece, has been preserved. Inside, a pillar base shows the Old Testament motif of Daniel in the lions' den, as it has been in early Christian Armenian art since the 4th century. The lions are depicted upside down next to the prophet Daniel

North side with bricks of the Katholikos Palace in the foreground

In 1941 and 1965–1966, the remaining remains of the wall were uncovered from the rubble. Numerous relief stones came to light, which obviously belong to earlier construction phases that go back to Greek times. In 1968, large parts of the west wall and some wall sections protruding into the interior were restored so that the original plan can be seen.

The best preserved north-west conche is revered today by the local population as a prayer niche. The old folk belief includes stones that are rubbed on the inner wall of the south conche and miraculously stick there. Annual Christian festivals take place on the square in front of the church ruins.

A field of ruins overgrown with grass in the north of the church refers to the place where the Catholicos palace stood. It appears to have been more modest compared to the ruins of other 7th century palaces in Arutsch , Zvartnots and Dvin, and consisted of a central room with a few adjoining chambers. The palace was accessible via a connecting passage through the small door in the north conche.

Other historical buildings

Chapel of Our Lady

Chapel of Our Lady and the pedestal from the southwest

The Chapel of Our Lady ( Surb Astvatsatsin ), hidden in a garden plot between bushes, consists of a chancel with a barrel vault and a slightly raised round apse. Half of the south wall and the west gable with the entrance door have disappeared, the east part is covered with a steep gable roof made of stone slabs. The original building is said to have been built on older structures in the 5th century, the remains are the result of repeated new buildings and restorations.

At the south-west corner of the chapel stood a stone cube on a five-tiered square base and on top of it an octagonal column, probably from early Christian times, which was once crowned by a capital. In 1973 the column was erected again, and since 2007 at the latest, the rubble of the overturned column has been lying on the floor together with the fragments of old kachkars .

Johanneskapelle

St. John's Chapel with attached Khachkar monument from the west

About 100 meters above the Mother of God Chapel, the ruins of the St. John's Chapel ( Surb Hovhannes ), also begun in early Christian times, have been preserved. The shape of the single-aisle building on a plinth, of which two steps rise above today's floor level, is reminiscent of an older pagan temple. The lintel above the entrance to the west bears several cross reliefs. The round apse at the east end of the long rectangular room is delimited by a high bema (platform), which is climbed via a four-step staircase. The visible side of the Bema is decorated with a bordered relief across the entire width, in the middle of which two birds can be seen flying symmetrically away from each other. The relief is inscribed and dated 1271. The lintel should have been designed before the 7th century and point to a correspondingly old age of a local sacred building. The usual baptismal niche is set into the north wall next to the bema.

The building collapsed in an earthquake in 1679. The massive double-shell outer walls made of pink and dark gray tuff , which stand upright on the north side up to the start of the vaulted arch, where the remains of the steep roof gable can be seen at both corners, have been restored . A Khachkar monument, dated 1297, was added to the northwest corner, which consists of a cross stone relief in a semicircular wall niche.

basilica

Unusual collection of cult objects in a village basilica

In a dense residential area near the cathedral stands a three-aisled basilica dedicated to Our Lady , which is provisionally covered with a gently sloping gable roof made of corrugated iron. The three barrel-vaulted naves are supported by two octagonal columns in each row, which are connected by round arches. The building resembles the archaic-looking basilicas that have been built in the countryside in southern Armenia since the 17th century. The walls are plastered inside and out. The two entrances are on the south and west sides.

The interior is dark and only gets some light through two tiny windows to the east and west. The church has an abundance of cult objects that can be attributed to Armenian popular piety .

literature

• Burchard Brentjes , Stepan Mnazakanjan, Nona Stepanjan: Art of the Middle Ages in Armenia. Union Verlag (VOB), Berlin 1981
• Paolo Cuneo: Architettura Armena dal quarto al diciannovesimo secolo. Volume 1. De Luca Editore, Rome 1988, pp. 107-109
• Patrick Donabédian: Documentation of the art places . In: Jean-Michel Thierry: Armenian Art. Herder, Freiburg / B. 1988, pp. 517-519, ISBN 3-451-21141-6
• Josef Strzygowski : The architecture of the Armenians and Europe. Volume 1. Kunstverlag Anton Schroll, Vienna 1918, pp. 89–91 ( online at Internet Archive )

Web links

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

• Rick Ney: Yerevan . Tour Armenia, 2007, pp. 79–81 (PDF, 6.8 MB; English)
• Avan . Armenian Studies Program
• Avan Church. Armeniapedia (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://www.yerevan.am/en/districts/avan/ (accessed January 9, 2020)
2. ↑ Stepan Mnazakanjan: Architecture . In: Burchard Brentjes u. a., pp. 63, 65
3. ↑ Josef Strzygowski, p. 470; Ulrich Bock: Armenian architecture. History and problems of their research. (25th publication of the architecture department of the Art History Institute of the University of Cologne) Cologne 1983, p. 144
4. ^ West facade: Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 518; East facade: Timothy Greenwood: A Corpus of Early Medieval Armenian Inscriptions. In: Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 58, 2004, pp. 27-91, here p. 39
5. ↑ Rouben Paul adalin: Historical Dictionary of Armenia. Scarecrow Press, Lanham 2002, p. 379
6. ^ RA 2001 Population and Housing Census Results . armstat.am, p. 49
7. ^ Yerevan - RA Capital. armstat.am, 2012, p. 234
8. ^ Yerevan RA Capital. armstat.am
9. ^ Administrative district Avan. Yerevan Municipality
10. ^ Yerevan RA Capital. armstat.am
11. ↑ More detailed descriptions: Brady Kiesling: Rediscovering Armenia Guidebook - Yerevan. ; Rick Ney, p. 80
12. ↑ W. Eugene smallholder: Zvart'nots and the Origins of Christian Architecture in Armenia . In: The Art Bulletin , Vol. 54, No. 3. College Art Association, September 1972, pp. 245-262
13. ↑ Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 69
14. ↑ Voskepar (Oskepar). ( Memento of the original from September 5, 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. Armenian Studies Program 
15. ↑ Stepan Mnazakanjan: Architecture . In: Burchard Brentjes u. a., p. 65
16. ↑ Christina Maranci: Medieval Armenian Architecture. Construction of Race and Nation. (Hebrew University Armenian Studies 2) Peeters, Leuven u. a. 2001, p. 97
17. ↑ Sisian St. Hovhannes, St. John. ( Memento of the original from September 2, 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. Armenian Studies Program 
18. ↑ Garnahovrt Garnhovit (Adyaman). ( Memento of the original from September 8, 2012 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. Armenian Studies Program 
19. ↑ Jean-Michel Thierry, pp. 70f
20. ↑ Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 83
21. ^ Patrick Donabédian: Documentation of the art places . In: Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 518
22. ^ Mayor Taron Margaryan celebrated Holy Easter with the residents of Yerevan. ( Memento of the original from January 2, 2014 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. Yerevan Municipality 
23. ↑ ^{a b} Rick Ney, p. 80; Patrick Donabédian: Documentation of the art places . In: Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 518
24. ↑ Rick Ney, p. 79; Patrick Donabédian: Documentation of the art places . In: Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 518