Lmbatavank
Coordinates: 40 ° 36 '30.1 " N , 43 ° 57' 28.3" E
Lmbatavank ( Armenian Լմբատավանք ), also Stephanuskirche , is a small cross -domed church dedicated to Saint Stephen (Armenian Surb Stepanos ) of the Armenian Apostolic Church near the city of Artik in the northern Armenian province of Shirak , which is dated around 600 AD. With its significant remains of paintings and architectural sculptures, it is the best preserved church of the 7th century in Armenia.
location
Lmbatavank is 1.5 kilometers southwest of the city center at the end of a road that branches off west of the railway bridge from the road to the neighboring village of Pemzaschen, five kilometers away, to the south. The church can be seen from afar on the slope of a flat, grass-covered hill.
Like most small cross-domed churches, Lmbatavank is surrounded by an old cemetery. Some hachkars are set up around the church. The much larger Sergius Church in the center of Artik is dated to the second half of the 7th century.
Architectural-historical development
The oldest known Armenian central building with four conches is the new building of the Etschmiadzin Cathedral (Etschmiadzin II) around 485. This large, almost completely symmetrical basic plan with four central pillars supporting the dome was neither inside nor outside, with one exception in the 7th century Armenia followed up. Instead, at the beginning of the 7th century, small tetracones were created with the drum and dome resting on the reinforced inner corners of the cross-shaped floor plan: the Zion Church ( Mankanoz ) in Oschakan and Hogevank near Sarnaghbyur. In the village of Awan (today a district of Yerevan ) the oldest church of this type, built around 600, was preserved as a ruin. The central building, covered with a stone vault, probably came from Asia Minor to the east. In addition to Lmbatavank, the small Church of Our Lady ( Surb Astvatsatsin ) from Talin and the Kamravor Church from Ashtarak have been preserved from the 7th century . In the earliest forms, the cross shape remains visible in the outline of the building, so that the four inside semicircular cones appear on the outside like the rectangular side arms of a cross-domed church. No examples are known before the 10th century for the rarer group of tetracones enclosed within an outer rectangle.
Small tricons within the period mentioned, in which, as in Talin (first half of the 7th century), the western arm is enlarged to a rectangular room, were mostly equipped with side rooms on the east side. All of them - like Lmbatavank - can only be roughly dated by comparing the styles of the architectural sculptures. The sequence of the well-known small cross-domed churches in detail is assessed carefully and differently.
Lmbatavank belongs to the type of cross-shaped monocons, in which only the east side is designed as a semicircular apse and the other sides as arms with a rectangular floor plan. In addition to the best-preserved church of Lmbatavank, these include the Kamravor Church of Ashtarak and the even smaller St. Sergius Church of Bjni near Hrasdan . Other churches of this type, which appear on the outside as a cross shape, such as the monoconchos of the Artavazik Church in Bjurakan and similar churches, some of which are encased in a rectangular shape , have only survived as ruins or after several renovations.
Design
The monoconchos by Lmbatavank, which is cross-shaped in the basic plan, merges from the straight rear wall in the ceiling area into a dome , which is otherwise common for the ceiling connection in semicircular apses. The four inner wall corners are connected to each other by belt arches , which lead over trumpets in the corners to the inner and outer octagonal drum. The interior receives sparse light through a narrow window in each of the gable ends and above in the main directions of the drum walls. The outside of the dome is surmounted by an eight-sided pyramid roof. After a restoration, the drum and the gable roofs of the side arms are covered with stone slabs as they were originally. The only entrance is in the west. The north corner of the west arm is filled by a tiny chapel with a semicircular apse, which was added later.
The carefully assembled ashlar stones of the walls are made of pink tuff that is widespread in Armenia , an easy-to-work stone that is still removed today in the Artik area and used to build houses. The frieze bands over the arched windows, which decorate interlocking circular shapes and a few relief stones set into the outer walls are of high quality. The profile on the gables protrudes with a strongly curved groove. The church has been restored several times, most recently in 1977.
painting
In the apse calotte fragments of the prophetic vision of Ezekiel from the Old Testament and the lower part of a Majestas Domini can be seen. The Majestas Domini shows Jesus Christ completely surrounded by a mandorla on his throne. A semicircle of rainbow colored (red-white-green stripes) mandorla and part of the throne, which stands on a pedestal decorated with precious stones, have been preserved. On both sides of the mandorla there are two evangelist symbols (tetramorphs). The figures are closely embraced by their wings. The white wings of Luke , marked as a bull, are dotted with large human eyes. The spoked wheels on both sides, which are described in Ezekiel's vision, embody the powers of heaven. Flames leap up from them. These themes are common in the apses of Eastern and European churches in the early Middle Ages, but the four evangelist symbols associated with Jesus Christ on the side are unusual for Armenia. They were also present at the Mren and Talin cathedrals . On the east wall to the north of the apse, you can see Saint George riding a dark horse .
Lmbatavank's murals were used for style comparisons. Color and stylistic features have been associated with the miniatures of the Syrian Rabbula Gospel from 586 and the Armenian Gospel of Queen Mlke from 862. The bright oval faces of the tetramorphs appear similarly in the four final ones, in the 6th / 7th. The 18th century miniatures of the Echmiadzin Gospel .
The painting fragments were largely restored in September 2013 by the Italian restorer Christine Lamoureux and the Armenian-Italian architect Paolo Arà Zarian on their own initiative. Less and worse than in Lmbatavank are the remains of paintings from the 7th century in the cathedral of Aruchavank , in the churches of Ziranavor and Karmrawor in Ashtarak and from the beginning of the 14th century in the Church of Our Lady of Jeghward near Ashtarak.
literature
- Ulrich Bock: Georgia and Armenia. Two Christian cultural landscapes in the south of the Soviet Union . DuMont, Cologne 1988, p. 250
- Burchard Brentjes , Stepan Mnazakanjan, Nona Stepanjan: Art of the Middle Ages in Armenia. Union Verlag (VOB), Berlin 1981, pp. 64, 239, 247
- Josef Strzygowski : The architecture of the Armenians and Europe. Volume 2. Kunstverlag Anton Schroll, Vienna 1918, p. 498f ( online at Internet Archive )
- Jean-Michel Thierry: Armenian Art . Herder, Freiburg 1988, pp. 68, 87
Web links
- Lmbat, Saint Stepanos. Armenian Studies Program
- Lmbatavank Church . Armeniapedia
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stepan Mnazakanjan. Architecture. In: Burchard Brentjes u. a., p. 65
- ↑ Ulrich Bock, p. 250
- ↑ Stepan Mnazakanjan: Architecture. In: Brentjes u. a., p. 64
- ↑ Jean-Michel Thierry, pp. 66f
- ↑ Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 68
- ^ Nona Stepanjan: Wall painting, book illumination and applied arts. In: Burchard Brentjes u. a., p. 239
- ↑ Kristin Platt : Armenia. 5000 years of art and culture. Museum Bochum, Foundation for Armenian Studies. Wasmuth, Tübingen 1995, p. 152
- ^ Nona Stepanjan: Wall painting, book illumination and applied arts . In: Burchard Brentjes u. a., p. 247
- ↑ Thomas F. Mathews, The early Armenian iconographic program of the Ējmiacin Gospel (Erevan, Matenadaran Ms 2374 olim 229) . In: Nina G. Garsoïan, Thomas F. Mathews, Robert W. Thomson (Eds.): East of Byzantium: Syria and Armenia in the Formative Period. A Dumbarton Oaks Symposium. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington (DC) 1982, p. 199