Kobayr
Coordinates: 41 ° 0 ′ 18.2 " N , 44 ° 38 ′ 6.3" E
Kobayr ( Armenian Քոբայր , Georgian ქობაირი ), other transcriptions K'obayr, Kobair, Kobaiyr, Khobajr, Kobajr, was a medieval monastery in the northern Armenian province of Lori , the ruins of which date from the 12th and 13th centuries. The fortified complex, which initially belonged to the Armenian Apostolic Church , was converted into a monastery of the Georgian Orthodox Church at the end of the 12th century . This explains the Georgian style of the architectural sculpture and the large-format wall paintings in the apse of the main church.
location
The M6 expressway runs from the provincial capital Vanadzor along the Pambak River and after its confluence with the Debed near the village of Dzoragyugh (Dzoragyugh) in the Debed Valley via Alaverdi to the Georgian border. The urban settlement Tumanjan , a former industrial site with a disused brick kiln, is located 35 kilometers north of Vanadzor on the right eastern bank of the Debed . Half a kilometer north of the junction to Tumanjan and about a hundred meters before the Kobayr train station, a partially slippery path begins on the west side of the road, which leads under the railway line past some farmhouses and gardens in the hamlet of Kobayr and up a steep slope. The ruin of the monastery can be reached after a ten-minute ascent through dense deciduous forest. Halfway through the path the path passes a contained spring. The main church was built on the mountain slope on the small flat surface of a rocky promontory. The other buildings are above further north. A path leads from the main church into a gorge and after 50 meters to a waterfall on the vertical rock face.
history
Some finds nearby date from the Early Bronze Age and the Iron Age . The place name Kobayr is probably composed of the Georgian kob and the Armenian ayr . Both words mean "cave" and refer to the numerous rock caves in the area, which were inhabited by monastic hermits in early Christian times. During this time the first church was built.
Since the end of the 11th century, the Kobayr monastery probably belonged to the Armenian dynasty of the Kiwrikean (Kyurikian, Kiurikian), who ruled the Lori Kingdom in the northeast of today's Armenia from 996 to 1118. The empire covered the entire east adjacent province except the province of Lori Tavush . In the 10th and 11th centuries, the Kiwrikean contributed significantly to the Armenian resistance against the invasions of the Islamic-Kurdish dynasty of the Shaddadids , who temporarily ruled the cities of Dvin , Ani and Ganjah . According to an inscription, two princesses of the Kiwrikean dynasty commissioned the construction of the chapel at the main church in 1171. In the 12th century, the historian Davit Kobayretsi lived in the monastery. The historian, geographer and translator Vardan Areveltsi (around 1198–1271) reports of Kobayr as an important center of scholars.
At the end of the 12th century, the area came under the control of the Zakarids (Georgian Mkhargrzeli), an Armenian-Georgian princely dynasty. Prince Sarkis Zakarian received the medieval East Armenian provinces of Gugark and Tavush from the Georgian King Giorgi III. (r. 1156–1184) and his heiress Tamar (r. 1184–1213). The Zakariden ruled as vassals of the Kingdom of Georgia from 1201 to 1260 in the capital Ani an area stretching from Gugarak in the north, where they now existing buildings of the monastery Harichavank Monastery , to the south after leaving build Syunik extended. There they took possession of the Vorotnaberd fortress, among other things . In 1261, Shah-in-Shah Zakarian was buried in Kobayr. His family adhered to the Georgian Orthodoxy, which, unlike the Armenian Apostolic Church, had accepted the Council of Chalcedon . The Zakarians made the monastery their spiritual center. Under Georgian influence, the region experienced a heyday with the construction of several monasteries from the 12th century.
The inscriptions in Kobayr are in Georgian from the middle of the 13th century. An inscription from 1276 tells of Giorgi, a son of Shah-in-Shah Zakarian, who had the outer walls of the main church in the upper area and the paving restored. The wall paintings in the portal porch donated by Giorgi date back to 1282. Another son, Mxargrjel, and his wife Vaneni commissioned the construction of the bell tower-mausoleum in 1279, in which both were buried.
After the 13th century the monastery was abandoned. It was not until the 17th and 18th centuries that monks returned, who now again followed the original Armenian apostolic teaching. In 1971 the wall paintings of the main church were restored without restoring the vaulted roof over the apse. Partial repairs have been carried out since 2006, including rebuilding the bell tower. In the apse, scaffolding was erected that supports a temporary corrugated iron roof. This at least partially covers the paintings that were previously completely exposed to the weather.
Monastery complex
The terrain, which slopes steeply to the east, is bounded in the south by a cliff edge at the gorge leading to the waterfall. The monastery complex was surrounded by a fortress wall made of basalt blocks, the remains of which have been preserved in the northeast corner. The former main entrance in the north wall consists of a tunnel, which is flanked on the outside by two round towers. The former path and the walls in this area are overgrown with trees. Today's ascent path leads directly to the main church in the south.
Main church
The main church or cathedral ( Katoghike ) directly on the edge of the cliff in the south and a rising rock wall on the west side consisted of a single-nave hall with a barrel vault , which ends in a semicircular apse in the east. The south wall, the entire barrel vault and the upper apse calotte have collapsed. Three equally spaced belt arches that rested on pilasters divided the hall. In between, flat niches with a semicircular top were cut out on the long walls. The windowing of the rear wall of the apse is unusual. There are two symmetrical windows in the top row above three large semicircular windows. There are also two high niches in the lower area on the side edges of the apse.
The main entrance in the middle field of the north wall is initially framed by a double taw stick. This is raised by an arched field with an outer double dew stick. The area in between is filled with wickerwork. The west entrance is less elaborately designed, a building decoration in the narrow passage between the church and the rock would be difficult to see. A bulge profile leads around the windows of the east wall, which is taken over by a large relief cross in Georgian style that fills the entire gable. The decorative frieze on the cornice shows lying palmettes between round braided patterns.
In the apse you can see Georgian-style paintings with life-size figures in three zones, which were reconstructed in 1971 from the original painting remains. The accompanying inscriptions are also Georgian. In the uppermost zone, the Virgin Mary and Child appear on the throne in the middle, flanked by an archangel on each side. In the middle zone the Last Supper is shown with Jesus as a bust in the center and apostles standing to the side in an unusual composition. Church fathers and saints stand between the windows in the lower zone . The ancient, expressive style can be compared with the paintings in the Church of Our Lady ( Surb Astvatsatsin ) of the Akhtala monastery in the Lori province (early 13th century). The paintings were probably created during the construction period, which Jean-Michel Thierry dates to around 1171. The choice of motifs corresponds to the scheme common in Georgian and Byzantine art since the 11th century . The most extensive Byzantine image program in an Armenian church can be found in the fully painted Gregor Church of the Tigran Honents in Ani, which is dated 1215. Otherwise are from the 12./13. In the 19th century, remains of paintings in two small provincial churches in the Nagorno-Karabakh region are known.
chapel
A single-nave chapel with a barrel vault and semicircular apse adjoins the north wall. The portal of the chapel is artfully framed with a geometric bas-relief. The design of the three half-columns on each side with spherical shapes and fluting comes from the Georgian treasure trove of shapes, but their execution is reserved according to Armenian taste. Due to matching features with the architectural decoration of the main church, the same construction time is set for the chapel. The chapel receives light through a narrow window in the east wall and the north wall.
The walls were completely painted. In the apse, from top to bottom, significant remains of painting can be seen in three zones: Below the three figures of a Deësis in the apse calotte, there is a communion scene in the middle and below, bishops standing close together. From the middle of the north wall to the rounding of the vault, Mary's life was depicted in several cycles: the birth of the Virgin , the passage to the temple (offering of the three-year-old Mary in the temple) to the Assumption of Mary . Donor figures on the west wall and in the lower area of the north wall, one of which is a female figure holding a model of a church, could represent the family of Shah-in-Shah Zakarian. As in the early Georgian paintings (for example in the Sioni church in Ateni, 7th century), they are shown with hands outstretched towards the altar (in an oranten gestus ).
The chapel was preceded by a gawit in the west, of which only the three columns of the north wall remained, which formed a row of arcades. Trumpets , which led from the corners to the elongated vault, are still present in front of the chapel wall. The Gawit also represented an open portico in front of the north entrance of the main church.
Mariamashen Church
The ruins of the oratory lie on a rocky nose in front of the east wall of the main church. The small barrel-vaulted room with a semicircular apse, parts of which fell down the slope, was named after an inscription in 1171 by Princess Mariam, the daughter of the Armenian King Kiwrikean II, but soon afterwards became the property of the Georgian Zakarian- Family over. The relief decoration is simpler than on the main church. There was a burial chamber under the chapel.
Bell tower mausoleum
The mausoleum for Mxargrjel, son of Amirspasalar Shah-in-Shah, and his wife Vaneni, commissioned in 1279, is located north of the main church in the middle of the monastery complex. A semicircular apse adjoins the square room in the east. The Georgian founding inscription is attached to the south wall. The portal in the south wall is surrounded by three wedge-shaped, stepped relief bands, a typical Armenian design for the 13th century. The braided pattern framed by two beads around the window next to it and the two apse windows, on the other hand, goes back to Georgian models. The building, made of smoothly hewn basalt blocks, is raised by a bell tower in the shape of an octagonal rotunda. After 2007, the previously missing bell tower was rebuilt. The room was plastered inside.
refectory
The dining room ( refectory ) of the 13th century monastery was a little higher on the slope west of the mausoleum. The hall, which was lengthened in north-south direction, measured 13.5 × 8.5 meters. It was covered by a barrel vault divided by two belt arches. The two front sides, the north longitudinal wall and about a third of the south wall in the north up to the base of the arch were largely preserved. The belt arches rested on presented half-columns. The vault load was transferred to the wall arches between the half columns.
One-nave burial chapel
From the refectory, a path runs parallel to the slope to a small church 100 meters away near the northern enclosure wall. The building, the outer walls of which have largely been preserved, had a barrel vault, which was divided by a belt arch in the western third. Its fighters have a honeycomb pattern, which is why the chapel is dated to the 13th century. The deep horseshoe-shaped apse is adjoined to the north by a narrower second apse in an asymmetrical arrangement that is extremely rare for Armenia. Symmetrical double apses, on the other hand, are somewhat more common (bell tower in Haghpat Monastery from 1245, other examples in the north and east of Lake Sevan ). The entrance is in the south wall.
Here is a portico in front, which opens through two arcades on the east side and half of the south side. The west wall facing the slope and the western half of the south wall are closed.
Further building remains and a rock cave above are difficult to reach in the impassable terrain. A few khachkars stand between the main church and the mausoleum .
literature
- Patrick Donabédian: Documentation of the art places . In: Jean-Michel Thierry: Armenian Art. Herder, Freiburg / B. 1988, p. 558, ISBN 3-451-21141-6
Web links
- Rick Ney: Lori marz . Tour Armenia, 2007, p. 24f
- Kobayr Monastery. Armeniapedia
- Silk Road: Kobaiyr Monastery. Armenian Heritage
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 222
- ^ Nona Stepanjan: Wall painting, book illumination and applied arts. In: Burchard Brentjes , Stepan Mnazakanjan, Nona Stepanjan: Art of the Middle Ages in Armenia. Union Verlag (VOB), Berlin 1981, p. 240
- ^ Patrick Donabédian: Documentation of the art places. In: Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 558
- ↑ Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 207