Nor Waragawank

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Nor Varagavank Monastery

The monastery Nor Varagavank ( New -Varagavank) is a former convent of the Armenian Apostolic Church . It is considered one of the most important monuments of medieval Armenia. Today it is partially destroyed.

location

The monastery is located about three and a half kilometers southwest of the village of Varagavan in the province of Tavush in northeast Armenia . The builders founded the monastery on a high hill surrounded by wooded mountains and ravines.

history

Prince David from the Kiurikid dynasty (a side branch of the Bagratids ) founded the monastery in the years 1193 to 1198 in his principality of Nor Berd. It became the bishopric and played an important role in ecclesiastical life in medieval Armenia. It was also the home monastery of the Kiurikids who had their burial place there. In contemporary reports from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the monastery is called Anapat (= desert). The current name of the monastery refers to the destruction of the Varagavank monastery (located in modern-day Turkey) by the Mongols. The then patriarch of the monastery, Ghoukas (= Lukas), managed to escape with the Holy Cross of Varaga ( Surb Nshan ) and he was accepted into the Anapat monastery. In memory of the destroyed monastery, Anapat was later renamed Nor Varagavank ( New -Varagavank).

Surp Nschan Church ( Armenian Holy Sign ) is the oldest structure in Nor Varagavank. The Kiurikids had a mausoleum built in front of them in the north in 1200. Later a single-nave chapel was added to the church from the south.

In the northern part of the monastery area Vasak II, a son of David, had the most important building of the monastery, the Church of Our Lady, built. According to an inscription, it was built from 1224 to 1237 and consecrated in 1240. The architect of the building was Gazan Anetsi (from Ani ).

In the nineteenth century, Grigor Manucharyan was the abbot of the monastery. Between 1804 and 1828 he and his armed volunteer army played an important role in the liberation of Eastern Armenia from foreign rule.

Building description

Portal of the Mother of God Church with incorporated crosses

The most important building of the monastery is the Mother of God Church. It is 15.40 meters wide and 10.25 meters high. The building, which is rectangular on the outside, has a cross-shaped floor plan on the inside. There are two-story side chapels in the four corners of the building. The church has two portals on the western and southern sides. The decoration of the west portal is atypical for medieval Armenian churches: there, dark purple and light blue stones in the form of stars, diamonds and hexahedra were laid like a mosaic. Light enters the building through two windows on the east facade, in the upper part of which there are relief images of animals and stylized plant motifs. The church had two gawites : On the south wall, the church is connected to all three buildings of the original monastery complex via a small rectangular vestibule. The vestibule was built in the second quarter of the thirteenth century. The upper general of the monastery, Johannes Touetsi, had the Gawit on the west side built between 1237 and 1261. The square building with a side length of around 14 meters manages without supporting pillars thanks to the use of two pairs of intersecting arches. The entrances to the Gawit are to the south and east.

The church of Surp Nschan (Armenian holy symbol ) has two apse , four side chapels and a vaulted gable roof. As a typical example of Armenian church architecture, the dome is supported by a cylindrical drum . The entrances to the church are in the south and north-west.

The monastery is equipped with a water supply system built in 1253 by a certain Shara. There are many kachkars (artistically hewn memorial stones with a relief cross in the middle, which are surrounded by geometric and plant motifs) on the monastery grounds . The oldest of them was created by Master Vardan in 1620.

The two-story burial chapel of the Kiurikids adjoins the north wall of the Surb Nshan Church. Prince David had it built in 1200. The chapel-like building with a rectangular base (3.50 × 2.30 m) was originally closed at the top with a vault. At the beginning of the 13th century, the vault was replaced by a cylindrical structure with a conical end, from which the lowest rows of stones were preserved.

The two-story chapel on the south side of the church was built at the beginning of the 13th century. Its architecture resembles the burial chapel of the Kiurikids, although it is slightly larger (4.50 × 3.20 m). Today it is commonly assumed that the upper floors of both buildings, accessible via a removable ladder, served as side chapels for the church.

There are two more chapels in the southwest and northwest parts of the monastery area. They were also built in the 13th century.

Web links

Commons : Nor Varagavank Monastery  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Nor Varagavank Monastery - Armeniapedia.org. Retrieved November 6, 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 , p. 114)
  2. ^ 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 , pp. 114 . Originally archived at Archive.org . Also available online at Armeniapedia.org
  3. ↑ Murad Hasratyan, Zaven Sargsyan: Armenia: 1700 Years of Christian Architecture . Yerevan 2001, p. 170 .
  4. ↑ a b c d Nor Varagavank Monastery, Varagavan, Armenia | World Building Directory | Buildings. Retrieved November 6, 2017 .

Coordinates: 40 ° 55 ′ 30 ″  N , 45 ° 12 ′ 6.5 ″  E