Kars Cathedral
Coordinates: 40 ° 36 '40.8 " N , 43 ° 5' 29.8" E
The Cathedral of Kars ( Armenian Սուրբ Առաքելոց Եկեղեցի Sowrb Arakyelots' Yekyeghyets'i , Turkish Havariler Kilisesi ), also known as Holy Apostles Church , is an Armenian church from the 10th century in Kars in eastern Turkey . In the course of its history it also served as a Russian Orthodox church, museum, depot and mosque (“Kümbet Mosque”).
history
- Armenian Cathedral (940s-1064)
The cathedral was built in the 940s when Kars was part of Bagratid Armenia and was completed under the Armenian King Abas I who chose Kars as the capital. Located in the historic Armenian province of Ayrarat , it served as the cathedral of the Armenian Apostolic Church . It was called the Holy Apostles Church because its exterior contained the sculptures of the Twelve Apostles .
- Seljuk Mosque (1064–1100s)
Immediately after the conquest of the area by the invading Seljuks, the Greater Seljuk Empire temporarily converted the Apostle Church into a mosque .
- Ottoman mosque (1579–1877)
After the Cathedral of the Holy Apostles was restored, the Ottomans again converted the church into a mosque in 1579, which it remained until the Russian Turkish War from 1877 to 1878 .
- Change of ownership (1877–1969)
After the Russian conquest of Kars in the course of the armed conflict in 1877, the building was used as a church again, this time as the seat of the new Russian Orthodox diocese. The diocese of Kars of the Armenian Apostolic Church, however, had its center in the monastery of Horomos .
In 1919, when the city of Kars fell to the Turks, the cathedral became a mosque again. After the Turks withdrew from Kars in 1919 and during the time of the First Republic of Armenia , the cathedral served as an Armenian church for the first time since 1579 .
When Turkey fell to Turkey a second time in the course of the Turkish-Armenian War under Kâzım Karabekir Kars, it finally ceased to serve as a church. It was briefly a mosque in the 1920s before it was used as an oil storage depot.
- Museum (1969–1980)
In 1969 it was rededicated as the “Museum of Kars”. Archaeological works from Kars and the surrounding region as well as objects from the medieval Armenian city of Ani have been collected and exhibited here. Finds from the Bronze Age to the present day were exhibited. An ethnography department was housed in an extension. After a new museum building was built, the works were moved there.
- Kümbet Mosque (since 1993)
The museum closed in 1980 and the cathedral building was left to decay until 1993 when it was converted into a mosque under the new name “Kümbet-Moschee” (Kümbet Camii) .
gallery
The cathedral on a Russian postcard.
The cathedral at the end of the 19th century.
Iconostasis of the cathedral, stripped of its icons.
View of the cathedral from the Zwingburg (February 2006). The buildings to the left of the cathedral have since been destroyed.
Panorama of Kars with the cathedral on the top left of the center (May 2008)
literature
- Jean-Michel Thierry: La cathédrale des Saints-Apôtres de Kars 930-943 . Leuven, Peeters 1978, ISBN 2-8017-0095-9
Web links
- Dickran Kouymjian: Index of Armenian Art: Armenian Architecture - Kars . In: Armenian Studies Program . California State University, Fresno . Retrieved September 24, 2013.
- THE Kars Cathedral at VirtualAni.org
- 3D model of the Holy Apostles Cathedral
- 50 inside and outside the Kümbet Mosque
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b İSMAİL SAYMAZ: Bin yıldır paylaşılamıyor. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 6, 2014 ; Retrieved January 12, 2013 . 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.
- ↑ Lynn Jones: Between Islam and Byzantium: Aght'amar and the Visual Construction of Medieval Armenian Rulership . Ashgate 2007, p. 98.
- ↑ AA Melkoyan: The Karst Oblast ' 1878-1918 . In: RG Hovannisian (ed.): Armenian Kars and Ani . Mazda, Costa Mesa, Calif. 2011, 235.
