Kirants Monastery
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The Kirants Monastery ( Armenian Կիրանց Վանք Kiranz Wank ) is a former monastery of the Armenian Apostolic Church in the Armenian province of Tavush . It is considered a significant example of medieval Armenian architecture. It was founded in the 13th century.
location
The monastery is located on the left bank of the Kunen River about twelve kilometers southwest of the village of Kirants (until 1967: Getashen) in the middle of extensive forests.
Building description
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The monastery complex is surrounded by defensive walls, which are largely destroyed today. The center of the facility can be entered in the southwest via a portal with a large archway. Inside there are three churches, two vestibules, a refectory and several living and utility rooms. As one of the few Armenian monasteries, it is mostly built of bricks. Only small parts of the complex are made of finely carved solid sandstone.
The main church is a cross-domed church with two-story side chapels on both sides of the semicircular altar apse. It is 11.04 meters long and 10.5 meters wide. The church was built entirely from bricks , which makes it unique in Armenia. As a typical example of Armenian church architecture, the small central church space is crowned by a dome with an octagonal drum . This rests on raised pointed arches (lancet arches ), which in turn connect a pair of columns with the corners of the apse .
The outside of the tambour is decorated with a mosaic of tiles of different colors and shapes that form geometric patterns. In the center of each of the eight sides of the drum there are elongated window openings through which light can enter the building. The tambour is crowned with a pointed hipped roof.
The two entrances to the church can be reached via arched halls in the west and south. The interior of the church is plastered with lime and decorated with frescoes . The Ascension of Christ is depicted in the dome . The inside of the reel shows scenes from the Old Testament and on the pendentives , the spherical triangles between the pillars, there are depictions find the four Evangelist en Matthew , Mark , Luke and John . The front part of the altar and the inner side of the entrance wall are decorated with natural and geometric motifs.
Two single-nave hall churches are built in front of the main church to the west and south . They were also built from brick. As in the main church, there are fragments of frescoes from the 13th century on the lime-plastered inner walls of the smaller churches. The doors are decorated with intricate carvings with floral and geometric patterns.
The refectory (= dining room) of the monastery is about 10 meters west of the main church. It is 17.9 meters long and 9.5 meters wide and was built from a combination of partially hewn sandstone and river stones in the shape of cobblestones . The dining room is considered to be one of the most important monuments of Armenian medieval architecture and is considered to be one of the largest refectories of its time. The outer walls of the building enclose a large hall with a semicircular vault, which is divided by three arches, which in turn rest on three pairs of columns. It may have had an entrance on the west wall that was destroyed today. The side rooms of the refectory are also vaulted. As in the churches, fragments of frescoes with Georgian and Greek inscriptions have been preserved on the walls in the dining room . These inscriptions indicate that the monastery, like many others in northern Armenia, did not belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church in the 13th century, but to the Chalcedonian churches .
The cemetery of the monastery is east of the main church. Among the tombstones, that of the Archimandrite (= head of the monastery) Mamia from 1698 is considered the most important.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Helix Consulting LLC: Kirants Monastery, 13th century - Nature Trail 2010: Kirants - Armenian Heritage. Retrieved November 7, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c d e Kirants Monastery, Kirants, Armenia | World Building Directory | Buildings. Retrieved November 7, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c d Kirants Monastery - Armeniapedia.org. Retrieved November 7, 2017 . (Copy from: Raffi Kojian: Rediscovering Armenia: an archaeological / touristic gazetteer and map set for the historical monuments of Armenia . Tigran Mets, Yerevan 2001, ISBN 99930-52-28-0 )
Coordinates: 41 ° 0 ′ 42.8 ″ N , 44 ° 59 ′ 25.2 ″ E