Chndsoresk
Khndsoresk ( Armenian Խնձորեսկ ), other romanization Khndzoresk, Chndzoresk, is a village and a rural community ( hamaynkner ) in the southern Armenian province of Syunik east of Goris . A picturesque valley below the village is a tourist destination because of its bizarre rock formations and numerous caves, some of which were inhabited until the middle of the 20th century. In addition to building ruins from the 19th century, the Hripsime Church, a three-aisled basilica from the 17th century, a single-nave church and the ruins of a hermitage have been preserved in the valley .
Location and townscape of Neu-Khndzoresk
Coordinates: 39 ° 30 ′ 44 ″ N , 46 ° 26 ′ 1 ″ E
In Goris, the M2 expressway coming from the northwest of Sissian turns south, soon leaving the valley of the Goris River in order to reach the provincial capital Kapan along the border with Nagorno-Karabakh over a pass near the monastery ruins of Bgheno-Noravank . In an easterly direction the M12 branches off in Goris , after 25 kilometers it reaches the only border crossing to the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and, as an extension, its capital Stepanakert . The M12 leads from Goris in the valley floor in serpentines up to a wide highland with fields and pastures. After six kilometers, a side road branches off to the southeast and after another four kilometers reaches the modern village of Khndzoresk. The road ends straight ahead seven kilometers behind Khndzoresk before the border in Nerkin Khndzoresk ("Lower Khndzoresk"), a village with 317 inhabitants founded in the 1980s (calculation from 2009).
Chndsoresk is located at an altitude of 1437 meters on the edge of the gently undulating, grass-covered plateau, which drops steeply to the south into the rugged valley of the rock caves and east of the village into another valley. Most of the two-story houses are surrounded by orchards (apples, peaches), agriculture is based on cattle breeding and the cultivation of vegetables.
In the 2001 census, the official population was given as 1992. In January 2009, according to official statistics, there were 2,196 inhabitants in Khndzoresk. In addition to the local administration, there is a secondary school and a kindergarten. There is a military camp at the entrance to the village.
history
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At first glance, the name Chndsoresk seems to be derived from chndsor , "apple". Presumably, however, the new place took over the name of the first settlement, which was called Chor Dzor or Chordsoresk with the meaning "deep gorge" because of its location (the ending -esk is unclear). According to excavations, the valley was inhabited in the Bronze Age and Iron Age. From the 5th century onwards, the early Christians increasingly began to create caves as dwellings. Many of the 1800 or so caves and some free-standing buildings were inhabited until the 20th century. At the beginning of the 18th century the population took part in the liberation struggle of the military leader Davit Bek († 1728), who conquered the Vorotnaberd fortress in the fight against the Safavids in 1724 and then successfully rebelled against the Ottomans . His closest colleague and successor was Mkhitar Sparapet, who is also revered as a national hero. Mkhitar withdrew to Khndzoresk and established his quarters in the valley near the river. Here he was killed by frightened villagers because they did not want to be drawn into any fighting and had therefore asked him to retreat to his fortress at Halidsor near Kapan. When the murderers presented Mkhitar's head to the Ottoman Pasha of Tabriz , the latter had the men executed for their insidious act. With the death of Mkhitar Sparapet, the Armenian uprising was broken.
The Catholicos and chronicler Abraham of Crete († 1737) describes the victory of the numerically inferior Safavids, on whose side the Armenians fought, against the Ottomans in the Battle of Jeghward of July 1735. In the same year the Catholicos visited the place and reports on it in his History work. He watched as people climbed the rock face on ropes to reach the entrances to their caves.
At the end of the 19th century the population was 4200, at the beginning of the 20th century it was 8300. In 1913 around 3000 families lived in cave dwellings. During the Second World War, 1250 Khndzoresk residents took part on the Soviet side, 480 of whom died. The new village was established in the 1950s. The last cave dwellers left their homes in the 1980s. During the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the 1990s, the residents of the new village fled to the caves to protect themselves from artillery fire. Today some caves are used as hay stores, the vast majority being empty.
Old Chndsoresk
In the eastern, most densely built-up part of the new village, an asphalt road branches off from the through road to the south, which after a few hundred meters turns into a gravel path at the last houses and in serpentines in a westerly direction to the old Khndsoresk ( Hin Khndsoresk ) into the gorge leads. Many of the caves carved into the sandstone cliffs lay one above the other and were connected by passages through which the residents could escape from looters and retreat to other secret caves. The St. Thaddäus Cave Church ( Surb Tadevos ), which was established in the 17th century or earlier, is hidden in the valley floor, which is densely overgrown with bushes and trees .
In the middle of the valley, behind the Hripsime Church, a 160-meter-long pedestrian suspension bridge has been crossing the brook, which has been cut deep in a gorge, since June 2012. The bridge, financed by a businessman, was planned as a visitor magnet in order to establish the valley as a destination. The Tatev cable car is named as a model with a similar function . A driveway from the main road to the other side of the bridge is under construction (end of 2013).
Hall church
On a steeper shortcut path, you can first reach a small hall church at the top of the slope , the roof of which is covered with grass. Its barrel vault is divided by two belt arches, which are continued on the long walls in pilasters . The only access is in the middle of the three room parts in the south wall. The door is surrounded on the outside by a round arch, which is set off in three steps and extremely elaborate from the outside to the inside with a braided band in the bas-relief, a cord on the edge, a fully plastic muqarnas-like middle step and on the door reveal with a wavy line in the bas-relief filled with stars is designed.
The room is illuminated by two arched windows at the side of the entrance and a rectangular window with a tiny opening above it in the west wall. The north wall has no windows because the building was built up to the eaves in the slope in the north and the grass roof merges into the hill. The semicircular apse is surrounded by two small side rooms, which open to the main room, and closes off outside with a straight east wall. In the north wall next to the altar there is typically a niche for worship. Like the ornamental design of the portal, its keel-arched frame points to parallels in Islamic architecture. Remnants of the white plaster are still present.
Hripsime Church
The main path into the valley leads shortly after a large two-story ruined house to a picnic area with a fountain by the stream. About 100 meters along the stream, the church with the name of St. Hripsime , a fourth-century martyr, can be recognized by her lantern on the roof between the bushes. The three-aisled basilica was possibly built over older predecessors in 1665. The dated building inscription is in the semicircular tympanum above the west entrance, which is now walled up.
Two massive T-shaped pillars in each row are connected lengthways by round arches. They divide the space into a wide, high central nave and two narrower, lower aisles. In the transverse direction, belt arches run between the pillars over the somewhat pointed arched central barrel vault. The belt arches do not continue as pilasters on the long walls. The three vaults are covered by a gable roof, the stone slabs of which are overgrown with grass. This type of building is characteristic of the rural churches built in southern Armenia from the end of the 17th century. In the villages of the historical Sangesur area in particular , pillar basilicas were built that go back to simple early Christian models. A similar church from 1705, also dedicated to Hripsime, stands in the village of Tandzaver (south of the Tatev monastery ). The elongated type with two pairs of pillars also includes the monasteries Haranc Anapat (founded in 1613 and destroyed by an earthquake in 1658), Mec Anapat ("Great Hermitage", newly founded at that point in 1662), both of which are in the province of Sjunik, as well as in the Vajoz Dzor province , the Church of Our Lady of Jeghegis, dated 1703, and the monastery church of Shativank (around 1655).
The portal in the southern longitudinal wall essentially corresponds to that of the small church, but is less detailed. The braided band on the outer arch reveal is missing here and instead of the keel arch on the door lintel there is only a flat circular arc. The arrangement of the large windows, which are only in the south wall and are missing in the north wall, as well as the small window cross in the east apse show the Hripsime Church as an enlarged image of the upper church. The three windows of the south wall are arranged in the middle of the wall fields, which is why the south portal had to be moved from the center to the west. Two of the windows are surrounded by a smooth reveal with a flat round arch, the eastern window on the south wall, on the other hand, has a rectangular frame, which, like the portal reveal of the upper church, has a diamond-shaped pattern on the outside and muqarnas-like spikes on the inside, as on the portals of both churches is. The semicircular altar apse is separated from the church hall by a podium (bema); the rectangular side rooms are accessible from the side aisles. The church has been completely preserved, but it is in a poor condition. An altar stone is venerated by the local population.
hermitage
Beyond the suspension bridge, a path leads through the forest on the western slope of the gorge down to the ruins of a monastic hermitage ( anapat ) and a cemetery. The way is called “Tomb of Mkh. Sparapet ”signposted. The outer walls of a single-nave church without a roof have been partially preserved, a little above the elongated facade of a building with a series of nine entrances and several tombstones from the 16th to 19th centuries. Most of the gravestones have long inscriptions on one long side and reliefs with scenes of everyday life on the other. One side is partly covered with Islamic-style geometric ornaments. Round edges with cords, such as those found on the portals of the two churches, are typical. On the venerated tombstone of Mkhitar Sparapets, three riders move in one direction, the foremost carrying a long spear. Two other tombstones belong to his son Aharon and his partner Gohar.
Web links
- Rick Ney: Siunik . (PDF; 1.6 MB) TourArmenia, 2009, p. 28f
- Khndzoresk village. traveltoarmenia.am
- Old Khndzoresk. Armeniapedia
Individual evidence
- ^ RA 2001 Population and Housing Census Results. (PDF; 927 kB) armstat.am
- ^ RA Syunik Marz. Marzes of the Republic of Armenia in Figures 2009. (PDF; 284 kB) armstat.am, p. 261
- ^ Brady Kiesling: Rediscovering Armenia Guidebook - Syunik Marz . 2005 (Armeniapedia)
- ↑ Harutyun Marutyan: Home as the World . In: Levon Abrahamian, Nancy Sweezy (Eds.): Armenian Folk Arts, Culture, and Identity . Indiana University Press, Bloomington 2001, p. 80
- ↑ Khndzoresk village . traveltoarmenia.am
- ↑ Susanna Shahnazaryan Khndzoresk Miracle: 160 Meter Swinging Bridge, Built By Hand, Officially Opens. hetq.am, June 9, 2012
- ^ Jean-Michel Thierry: Armenian Art. Herder, Freiburg / B. 1988, p. 321, ISBN 3-451-21141-6