Spitakavor
Spitakavor ( Armenian Սպիտակավոր վանք ), other romanization Spitakawor , Azerbaijani Gülvank , is a former monastery of the Armenian Apostolic Church in the southern Armenian province of Vajoz Dzor . In a secluded location in the mountains north of the provincial capital Yeghegnadsor , the Church of Our Lady ( Surb Astvatsatsin ), dated 1321 , a forecourt and a bell tower have been preserved.
location
Coordinates: 39 ° 49 ′ 47 " N , 45 ° 21 ′ 48" E
From Jeghegnadsor a side road leads north through the higher suburb of Gladzor and further through the village of Wernaschen . The asphalt road turns to the south-east at the upper end of the village and after five kilometers reaches the former Tanahat monastery with two preserved churches from the 13th century. Shortly before the turn, five kilometers from Yeghegnadsor at an altitude of 1540 meters, a bad road branches off to the left at the Gladzor Museum, heading north, which leads half a kilometer through scattered farmsteads under trees and then forks in a free valley basin. The signposted road on the left leads to Spitakavor in nine kilometers. The road straight ahead initially follows the stream to a small dam on the right-hand side. Immediately after the dam, he turns left in a hairpin turn steeply up the hill. The footpath begins at the end of the hairpin on the right and always on the left side of the valley, following the brook, after a total of six kilometers, it reaches the monastery, which is about 2130 meters high on the slope of the Teksar mountain range. The gorge, initially framed by steep basalt rocks, later becomes wider and offers space for some dwellings made of field stones on the summer pastures of the sheep and cattle herds below the monastery. Almost two kilometers further northeast on a mountain peak about 2350 meters high is the fortress ruin Proschaberd (Boloraberd) from the 11th century.
history
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It is possible that there was a monastic settlement and a small church from the 7th century, traces of which have been found. According to an inscription, the Spitakavor convent can be traced back to the year 1321, when the Church of Our Lady was completed. The client for the construction was probably Prince Eachi (Tschatschi), who died in 1318, of the Armenian Proschian family, who ruled the area independently from their headquarters in Jeghegis from the first half of the 13th century . The church was completed under Eachi's son Amir Hasan II. The Proschian family donated foundations to the monastery and also commissioned the construction of the bell tower, which, with inscriptions, was completed in 1330 for a member of the Proschian family named Yovhannes and his wife Tatsch.
The cultural heyday, which lasted until the beginning of the 14th century, came to an end when, after the death of the Ilkhan Abu Sa'id in 1335, disputes over the succession of the Ilchanate broke out among the Mongol princes , which led to a 20-year civil war in anarchic conditions the region and led to the collapse of the Mongol Empire in Persia. The University of Gladzor, up until then the most important educational institution in medieval Armenia, which was probably located in the Tanahat Monastery, had to be closed in 1338. One of its graduates, the philosopher Hovhannes Vorotnetsi (1315-1388/98) withdrew south into the sphere of influence of the Orbelian family in what is now the province of Sjunik , where he first taught in Vorotnavank Monastery before he founded the University of Tatew Monastery . In Wajoz Dzor, Spitakavor developed into an important university up to the second half of the 15th century and into a cultural center under the rule of the Proschian princes. Some manuscripts by the philologist Vardapet Avakter, who was active in the field of calligraphy at the time , have been preserved.
Subsequent attacks by the Timurids destroyed the defenses and outbuildings of the monastery, which were not rebuilt. The monks withdrew to safer areas further south. Until 1604, however, services appear to have been held in the church. In that year the Persian Shah Abbas I had many Armenians deported to Isfahan . After that, the entire region was deserted by its residents. The church was restored from 1971 to 1972, during the time of the Soviet Republic of Armenia , and most recently in 2006.
In Spitakavor is the tomb of the Armenian politician and military man Garegin Nschdeh (1886–1955), who fought for an independent Armenia as a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation in the Balkan Wars and in the First World War against Russia and the Ottoman Empire and fought for an independent Armenia by the Armenians as a national hero is revered. He died in Soviet captivity. In 1987 his ashes were secretly brought here and in 1989 a tombstone and a kachkar made of pink tuff were placed on the south wall of the church .
Monastery complex
The ensemble of buildings consisting of the church, a walled courtyard in the west and the bell tower stands on a small level platform on the slope above a spring. At the edge of the platform you can see the foundation walls of some of the monks' quarters of the altogether modest hermitage. The name Spitakavor Astvatsatsin , "White Lady church" (from Spitak , "white") refers to either the white (relatively bright), volcanic rock Felsit from which the clean assembled blocks of the walls are made or a "white Madonna", an icon with white cloak that was kept here and to which the church could have been dedicated.
The Surb Astvatsatsin is the rare in Armenia form of a single-nave domed church with a horseshoe-shaped apse on the east side and a main room extended to the west. The central dome is supported by the wall corners of the apse and opposite by broad pillars with additional half-columns. The four corners of the square central room are connected to each other by belt arches that form narrow, semicircular framed niches in the north and south. Pendentives ensure the transition from the square to the circular base of the tambour formed by a hollow . The outside of the tambour is also circular and unusually high. The dome is surmounted by a conical roof made of stone slabs, which forms a protruding eaves. The only light sources are four narrow window slots in the cardinal directions on the drum, one opening each of the same size on the north and south gables and in the apse.
The interior is ornately designed. As in the case of the Areni Church, also dated 1321, a circumferential multi-tiered cornice forms the transition between the rear wall of the apse and the apse calotte, between the wall and the gable field and functions as a capital between the wall templates and the girdle arches. In the lower area of the side walls of the western extension, niches with muqarnas finish are sunk. There is also a rich sculptural figure decoration on the walls. The front wall of the bema (altar pedestal) was decorated with a Deësis , a scene with Christ in the middle, with Mary and John the Baptist , as well as the apostles Peter and Paul . The plates are now in the History Museum in Yerevan . In contrast, the bust of God on the upper keystone of the apse calotte was preserved in situ . On another relief stone, two figures kneel across from each other and hold a model of the church between them. The two founders, Prince Eachi and his son Amir Hasan II, are probably depicted.
The archivolt formed by fan-shaped hollows and intertwined webs surrounds the tympanum in a semicircle above the only entrance in the west. In the middle, Mary holds the baby Jesus in her left arm. The shape of the posture corresponds to a Hodegetria , while the head, which is lovingly inclined to the side, adopts the Eleusa type of Mary .
Some more figure reliefs that were attached to the walls inside and outside are now in the History Museum in Yerevan. On a relief, the old Prince Eachi with a beard is depicted in a hunting scene, sitting quietly and holding the bow in his right hand. He wears a typical conical hat on his head. He instructs his young son Amir Hasan in the art of hunting. In the next scene, the adult Amir Hasan in a long Mongolian robe kills a doe on horseback with a bow and arrow. Several figures in Spitakavor, whose faces are characterized by protruding cheekbones and Mongolian narrow eyes, show the influence of contemporary Islamic art. Parallels to Seljuk buildings in Anatolia can be shown.
The large cross reliefs with which the windows are framed on the gable ends and other elegant ornamental details have led to the assumption that the sculptors may have been pupils of Momik , who designed the Areni Church. They may also have been involved in the construction of the mausoleum church of the Noravank monastery . The cross relief on the east side is particularly noticeable. Its arms end in asymmetrical pentagonal stars.
One of the numerous inscriptions is remarkable because it mentions the purchase of land by an Armenian from a Jew. The land sold was in the village of Srkoghovk (today Wernaschen ). If Jews could own land here, they seem to have lived in an environment that was tolerant for the Middle Ages. The presence of Jews is also evidenced by other inscriptions in Vajoz Dzor and the Jewish cemetery in Jeghegis .
A wider rectangular courtyard is built in front of the west facade. It has the typical position and dimensions of a Gawit . However, it has not been established whether the floor-to-ceiling courtyard was ever roofed over. The courtyard is completely closed except for the main entrance in the west, two passages in the north and one in the south. A slender bell tower is integrated into the south-west corner of the courtyard, the lower zone of which, with its uneven layers of house stones, does not match the otherwise carefully smoothed cuboids of the outer walls. Above this is a low second zone with a semicircular niche in the middle and above the higher actual bell tower with a gable roof .
literature
- Patrick Donabédian: Documentation of the art places . In: Jean-Michel Thierry: Armenian Art . Herder, Freiburg / B. 1988, ISBN 3-451-21141-6 , pp. 582 f.
Web links
- Rick Ney: Vayot's Dzor. (PDF) TourArmenia, 2009, p. 16 f.
- Spitakavor Church . Armeniapedia
- Spitakavor. Armenian Heritage
- Spitakavor Monastery at Findarmenia.com ( Memento from August 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- Spitakavor Church . greatyerevan.com
Individual evidence
- ^ Thomas F. Mathews, Avedis Krikor Sanjian: Armenian Gospel Iconography: The Tradition of the Glajor Gospel . Dumbarton Oaks Studies 29. Harvard University, Washington 1991, p. 14
- ↑ Spitakavor 8: St. Astvatsatsin Complex. Armenian Heritage
- ^ Patrick Donabédian: Documentation of the art places . In: Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 583
- ↑ Stepan Mnazakanjan: Plastic . In: Burchard Brentjes , Stepan Mnazakanjan, Nona Stepanjan: Art of the Middle Ages in Armenia. Union Verlag (VOB), Berlin 1981, p. 232
- ↑ Armenia. Rediscovery of an old cultural landscape . (Exhibition catalog) Museum Bochum 1995, plate 131, p. 170
- ↑ Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 218
- ↑ Rick Ney, p. 17
- ^ Patrick Donabédian: Documentation of the art places . In: Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 582 f.