Chtsgonk Monastery
Coordinates: 40 ° 22 ′ 50 ″ N , 43 ° 22 ′ 35 ″ E
The Chtsgonk Monastery ( Armenian Խծկոնք վանք , Turkish Beşkilise manastırı , "five-church monastery") is an Armenian monastery complex of five churches that was built in the then Bagratid kingdom of Ani until the 13th century . After Turkey conquered the western region of Armenia including the city of Kars in 1920 , the monastery complex was destroyed in the 1950s. Today the site is near the city of Digor , about 19 km west of the border with Armenia. The monastery is located in the valley of the Digor River.
The monastery with its five churches was still intact when it was photographed by the Armenian archaeologist Ashkharbek Kalantar in August 1920 . After the displacement of the remaining Armenian population from the Kars area , the government declared the monastery and its surroundings a restricted military area and training area . In 1959, French art historian Jean-Michel Thierry visited the site and found that four of the five churches had been destroyed. Only the round church Surb Sargis (St. Sergios), dated 1029 and probably built at the same time as the round church of Marmaschen , was preserved in a badly damaged condition. According to residents of Digor, the churches had been blown up by the Turkish army . Your information was confirmed by visible blast marks. The dome of the preserved church is intact, but the side walls were blown up. The destroyed churches were leveled. The historian William Dalrymple confirms that the damage could not have been caused by an earthquake.
See also
Web links
- The Chtsgonk Monastery on VirtualAni.org
- Chtsgonk's picture gallery on the Research on Armenian Architecture page
- Pictures from 1968 on the Gateway to Armenian Cultural Heritage website
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ashkharbek Kalantar: Armenia from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages, Selected Papers. Paris 1994, pp. 84-89.
- ^ Tessa Hofmann : The situation of the Armenian minority in the Republic of Turkey. A critical inventory. In: Coexistence and Confrontation. Contributions to the recent history and present situation of the oriental Christians. Lit Verlag, Hamburg 2003, p. 290; Jean-Michel Thierry: Notes on the monuments arméniens en Turquie. In: Revue des Études Arméniennes , 2, 1965, pp. 165-184.
- ^ Tessa Hofmann: Armenians in Turkey Today. A Critical Assessment of the Situation of the Armenian minority in the Turkish Republic. Forum of Armenian Associations of Europe, 2003, p. 40.
- ^ William Dalrymple: Armenia's Other Tragedy. In: The Independent Magazine , March 18, 1989.