Bjurakan
|
Bjurakan Բյուրական |
|||
| State : |
 Armenia
|
||
| Province : | Aragazotn | ||
| Coordinates : | 40 ° 20 ′ N , 44 ° 16 ′ E | ||
| Height : | 1438 m | ||
| Area : | 21.27 km² | ||
| Residents : | 4,722 (2012) | ||
| Population density : | 222 inhabitants per km² | ||
| Time zone : | UTC + 4 | ||
| Community type: | Rural community | ||
| Mayor : | Zarzand Babayan | ||
|
|||
Bjurakan ( Armenian Բյուրական ), other transcriptions Byurakan, Biurakan, Burakan, is a small town in the central Armenian province of Aragazotn on the southern slope of the Aragaz . The economic development of the place is linked to the establishment of the Bjurakan Observatory in 1946. In the center of the village is the well-preserved St. John's Church ( Surb Hovhannes ), a basilica from the 10th century, and to the east, the ruins of the Artavazik Church, a small cross -domed church from the 7th century.
location
Bjurakan is located around 25 kilometers northwest of Yerevan at an altitude of 1,438 meters on the southern slope of the Aragaz, with forest islands between cattle pastures, which rises from the valley of the Aras to the highest peak in the country at 4090 meters. Several deeply cut river valleys divide the mountainside and the flat plains of the area in a star shape on all sides. The Amberd, which rises near the summit, flows into the valley of the same name, which is difficult to cross over long distances, even on foot.
Bjurakan is the first settlement on the east side of the Amberd Gorge on the H20 road, which branches off the M1 expressway in the plain in Agarak (seven kilometers west of Ashtarak ) , after four kilometers through the village and at the mountain lake at 3200 meters high Kari Lich ends. Halfway between Bjurakan and the lake, an asphalt road branches off the H20 to the west, which leads through the Amberd Gorge to the Amberd fortress ruins . The second possibility to cross the gorge on the mountain is a steep, winding gravel road, on which the village Orgov can be reached directly from Bjurakan and then Tegher with the monastery of the same name on the west side opposite.
history
At the site of the Amberd fortress, which was founded in the 7th century and expanded in the following centuries, traces of settlement from the Early Bronze Age (from the middle of the 4th millennium BC) and the Urartian period (first half of the 1st millennium BC) have been found. found. Bjurakan was a fortified outpost for Amberd in the vicinity of the settlement of Agarak from the Early Bronze Age and in the Middle Ages it was a bulwark to protect the summer residence of the Bagratids in the 10th century and the Pahlavunis, an Armenian royal family from the 11th century. At the beginning of the 10th century, a battle took place in Bjurakan between the Arabs and Armenian princes, who revolted against their supremacy. Otherwise, little is known about the history of the place.
In 1946 the astrophysicist Viktor Hambarzumjan (1908–1996) founded an observatory in Bjurakan , which under his direction became one of the leading astrophysical research institutions. 1951 to 1955 the first telescopes were built, including a Cassegrain reflecting telescope . In the 1960s, the researchers began a program to observe the galaxies , which resulted in a data collection of 20 million celestial bodies, which were grouped according to certain criteria. In 1997 a museum was opened with the Hambarzumjan private collection and library.
Townscape
At the 2001 census, the official population was 4,312. According to official statistics, in January 2012 Bjurakan had 4,722 inhabitants. A network of winding streets connects the isolated houses surrounded by large orchards. The center of the village is a park with a high masonry fountain sculpture on a stone platform on the thoroughfare. The basilica is a few meters above the park in an eastern side street. In this direction a road leads to the ruins of the Artavazik church in a stony terrain on the edge of the gorge of a torrent on the eastern edge of the village. At the northern end of the village, Bjurakan has grown together with Antarut (294 inhabitants in January 2012) along the H20. The street village of Antarut at an average altitude of 1524 meters was founded in the second half of the 19th century and was called Inaklu until 1949.
The observatory is located on the southern outskirts. Another telescope is located a few kilometers away on the west side of the Amberd Gorge in the village of Orgov near Tegher. Both are not to be confused with the research station for cosmic rays much higher up on the mountain by Lake Kara Lich. The museum in Hambarzumjan's private house is hidden in a spacious park in the south near the observatory.
Johanneskirche
The St. John's Church ( Surb Hovhannes ) is a rare-aisled basilica whose windowless clerestory as an Armenian domed hall (Cathedral of Aruch , 7th century or main church of the monastery Marmashen , 11th century) rests on two pilasters pairs about the longitudinal walls in the 6.5 m wide room protrude. The pillars are connected to each other along the walls by round arches, creating three niches on each side instead of the side aisles. The round arches support the barrel vault above the prayer room; The belt arches installed between half-columns in front of the wall pillars reinforce the longitudinal division of the room into three parts. To the east is the high podium (bema) of the unusually rectangular chancel. Its width corresponds roughly to the clear width of the nave between the wall pillars. Steps on both sides lead up to the Bema. The also rectangular side rooms in the east are on the floor level of the prayer room and can be reached through entrances from the side niches. Three narrow arched windows in the long walls, two equally large windows one above the other in the east wall and two smaller windows there and in the west wall illuminate the room. There are also two circular windows on each of the three wall sides high above the altar and another in the west gable.
In addition to the special hybrid form between a hall church and basilica, there is an equally remarkable design on the outer long sides. The eastern side rooms are lower than the roofs over the niches of the nave and protrude laterally over the main building, resulting in a T-shaped plan. The facade design is also different. In the west, the longitudinal facades correspond to the classic early Armenian pattern with horseshoe-shaped ornamental friezes above the windows, only the arched portal porch around the main entrance on the south facade is an idiosyncratic new creation refer to Roman temples. The wide three-tiered base also comes from the pre-Christian building tradition. The walls, made of pink tuff blocks, obviously belong to different construction phases that could go back to the 5th century. The church has been carefully restored and is used for church services. In the park around the church there are some old khachkars .
Artavazik Church
The ruins of the Artavazik Church are said to have got their name from an Armenian ruler at the time, who presumably acted as a founder. A donor's inscription is not known. The once elegant building embodies a non-encased cross- domed church with monoconchos typical of the 7th century, i.e. a central building type in which three cross arms are rectangular on the inside and the eastern altar apse is semicircular and the outer walls form a cross-shaped floor plan. In this case, an elongated western arm stood opposite a U-shaped chancel. The building measures 13.5 × 10.5 meters outside and 11.0 × 8 meters inside. Based on stylistic studies, it is dated to the second half of the 7th century.
The best preserved representatives of this type, in which the load of the central drum covered by a dome is carried over the inner corners of the walls, are Lmbatavank and the Kamrawor church of Ashtarak . They are related to triconch systems such as the small Church of Our Lady ( Surb Astvatsatsin ) in Talin . The small cross-domed churches of the 7th century usually served as burial chapels and belonged to a cemetery, but most of them have disappeared or are only preserved as ruins.
The belt arches between the inner corners of the walls formed a square basic shape, from which fan-shaped trumpets instead of the pendentives used later led to the inner circular cross-section of the dome. In the northeast, a chapel with a rectangular chamber and a small round apse was added, the outer walls of which protrude slightly over the main building. Access was from the northern branch. Such an extension goes in the direction of the partially encased cross-domed churches, in which, like the Stephanuskirche in Kosch from the 7th century, side rooms are built on both sides of the apse.
In the tympanum above the lintel of the chapel, the wall painting of a Madonna and Child in blue color has been preserved. In the 13th century, a round bell tower was built on the ridge above the west gable, the conical roof of which was supported by four slender columns. Around 2005, the bell tower collapsed in a lightning strike. The west gable, about two meters of the adjacent south wall, most of the north wall and a remnant of the east conche have been preserved. Exactly in line with the church, opposite on the east side of the small rock gorge, is a huge Khachkar, which was erected at the same time as the bell tower.
Web links
- Rick Ney: Aragatsotn March . Tour Armenia, 2008, pp. 45-47
- Byurakan Village . Armeniapedia
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ambert's Vahramashen Church. armenica.org
- ↑ Rouben Paul Adalian: Historical Dictionary of Armenia. Scarecrow Press, Lanham 2002, pp. 353f
- ^ RA 2001 Population and Housing Census Results . armstat.am, p. 51
- ^ RA Aragatsotn March. armstat.am, 2012, p. 244
- ↑ Rick Ney, Tour Armenia, p. 47
- ^ Annegret Plontke-Lüning: Early Christian Architecture in 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, enclosed CD-ROM: Catalog of preserved church buildings, p. 96f, ISBN 978-3700136828
- ^ Jean-Michel Thierry: Armenian Art . Herder, Freiburg 1988, p. 68, ISBN 3-451-21141-6