Tanahat (Vajoz Dzor)
Tanahat ( Armenian Թանահատ ), also Tanahati vank (Թանահատի Վանք), Tanat, Tanade vank or Karavank , was a medieval monastery of the Armenian Apostolic Church and an important religious center in the southern Armenian province of Vajoz Dzor . The cross- domed church Surb Stepanos and the adjoining smaller church Surb Nshan from the 13th century as well as the ruins of numerous outbuildings have been preserved on a mountain slope . Tanahat was believed to be the site of the University of Gladzor, founded in 1282, from which famous scholars and artists emerged.
location
Coordinates: 39 ° 47 ′ 23 " N , 45 ° 24 ′ 2" E
From the provincial capital Yeghegnadsor , a side road leads north through the higher suburb of Gladzor and further through the village of Wernaschen . At the northern end of Wernaschen, five kilometers from Yeghegnadsor, a museum has been set up in the former Surb Hakob church from the 17th century, which is dedicated to the history and importance of Gladzor University. At the museum, a road, later a footpath, branches off northwards to the Spitakavor monastery ruins . The single-lane asphalt road, on the other hand, turns to the southeast and gradually climbs from 1479 meters in Wernaschen over wide, grass-covered hills and after five kilometers reaches the former Tanahat monastery, which is 1641 meters high. The road ends three kilometers to the east at the church of the former Arkaz monastery ( Arkazi Surb Khach , "Holy Cross"), which was rebuilt around 1870 on the site of a presumably older Tukh Manuk shrine and is visited by Armenian pilgrims.
Tanahat is 100 meters north of the road in a treeless environment on the southern slope of the Teksar ridge, which is up to 2,898 meters high. A small stream flows in a valley cut next to the monastery. A parking lot and half-ruined footpaths are left over from the 700th anniversary celebrations in 1982 after Gladzor University was founded.
history
According to the historian Stephanos Orbelian (around 1250–1305), the monastery already existed in 735, when the namesake of the main church, the martyr Bishop Stephanos von Sjunik, was buried here. From the first half of the 13th century, princes of the Armenian Proschian family ruled the area independently from their headquarters in Jeghegis , while areas north of Lake Sevan were under the suzerainty of the Mongols . The buildings that are preserved today were built under the patronage of the Proschian princes. The main church Surb Stepanos was built between 1273 and 1279 with the support of Prince Prosch. According to a fragmentary, undated inscription in St. Stephen's Church, the monks were instructed to hold a service for the prince three times a year. Other inscriptions in the church, which are dated between 1284 and 1292, mention generous donations of lands and homesteads by individual donors, which in addition to the local Proschian family also included members of the more southern Orbelian family.
The Surb Nshan Church was added later, probably in the 13th century . It could be the Church of the “Holy Sign of Varag ”, mentioned in inscriptions from 1307 onwards. This would have consecrated the church to the famous relic of the "Holy Sign" ( Surb Nshan , Holy Cross), which would have been brought from Varagavank (Varag) to Tanahat in the second half of the 13th century . According to another opinion, the extension was an oratory which , according to a source, was commissioned by a certain Prince Hayrut in 1335.
In 1282 the University ( vardapetaran ) of Gladzor was founded, which was the leading educational institution in medieval Armenia in its heyday from 1291 until its closure in 1338 after the death of the head Yesayi Nchetsi and was called the "second Athens". The subjects taught included algebra, geometry, astronomy, theology, and miniature painting, among others. One of the founders was the sculptor, architect and illuminator Momik († 1333), who was best known for the design of evangelists and his design of the Areni Church, which was completed in 1321 . The first leader was Nerses Mshetsi Vardapet, who taught theology and calligraphy . A total of 350 students ( vardapet ), including Stephanos Orbelian, graduated from Gladzor. After the death of Abu Sa'id in 1335, disputes among the Mongol princes led to a 20-year civil war over the successor to the Ilchanate . The anarchic conditions not only led to the closure of Gladzor, but also many other Armenian monasteries and churches.
Tiratur Kiliketsi, who taught calligraphy and miniature painting, continued to run the university after 1338, initially in the Hermon Monastery ( Hermoni Vank , located eight kilometers east of Jeghegis). A graduate of Gladzor was the philosopher Hovhannes Vorotnetsi (1315-1388/98), who initially worked as a teacher in Vorotnavank Monastery in what is now the province of Sjunik , before he founded the University of Tatew Monastery with the support of the Orbelian family of Sjunik . Tatev University took over from Gladzor around 1340 and was in operation until 1434. An essential task of the University of Gladzor during its entire life was to maintain the independence of the Armenian Church and to reject the claim to authority of the Roman Catholic Pope, which Catholic missionaries tried to enforce.
Indications of the location of Gladzor are contained in some manuscripts that were copied in the university's office. In a gospel that came into the private possession of the Orbelian family in 1377 and was hidden from the Mongols in the Geghard monastery around 1400 , the colophon (postscript) states that it was made in the Gladzor monastery in the Wayoz Dzor area. The name Gladzor can be traced back to the meaning "the valley of the wolf". In the colophons of six manuscripts made between 1284 and 1328, another word for Gladzor appears, Aghberk , which means “from the sources”.
The localization of Gladzor at Tanahat, which is most widely accepted to this day, goes back to the Armenian folklorist and archaeologist Jervand Lalajan (1864–1931), who published his theory in 1904. After the team of archaeologists uncovered several building ruins on the monastery grounds, it was clear to Lalajan that it had to be the big university. A church that he dated to 1215 was, in his opinion, converted into a school hall with the construction of the Stephanus Church (1273–1279). He also wanted to have found the graves of three important figures from Gladzor. Lalajan referred to Gladzor and Aghberk as the middle name of Tanahat Monastery. For this he quoted the historian Stephanos Orbelian, who studied at Gladzor University and only mentions Tanahat in his list of monasteries, but not the other two names. Later researchers declared the attribution of the three graves and the definition of the location as insubstantial. GM Grigoryan (1973) points to the fact that many manuscripts mention the place names Gladzor and Aghberk, but not Tanahat, and measures the water sources in the vicinity of the monastery, which would have been expected based on the meaning of the word Aghberk. As an alternative suggestion for localization, Grigoryan refers to a ruined monastery about four kilometers southeast of Jeghegis , where there is at least plenty of water.
Monastery complex
Surb Stepanos
The Stephanus Church, visible from afar, is a sheathed cross-dome building in which the cross-shaped floor plan is inscribed in the almost square outline of the outer walls. The western branch is a little shortened. Only the eastern altar apse has a semicircular back wall, the other three side arms are rectangular. This form of a central building, called monoconchos, also occurs in the area in the Surb Karapet Church of Tsaghats Kar, dated 1041, and the Areni Church designed by Momik . The forerunners of this development in the 7th century were small grave churches with an externally visible cross shape ( Lmbatavank , Kamravor Church of Ashtarak ). The church of the Gndevank monastery a few kilometers east of Tanahat, dated 936, is a partially encased cross-domed church with two eastern side rooms. From the 11th century onwards, central buildings were designed as completely encased cross-domed churches.
The tambour, which is circular on the inside and twelve- sided on the outside, rests on the four inside corners of the walls, which are emphasized and reinforced by semicircular columns. The four wall templates are connected to each other by belt arches . Between the basic square shape and the circular Fußkranz of the swift convey in the corners pendentives . Narrow rectangular side rooms fill the outer corners on the side of the apse and on the west side. In the east they are on two floors one above the other. On the ground floor, the eastern chambers are accessible from the side arms of the church interior. Steep stairs that start on the sides of the apse lead to the upper rooms. The Church of Our Lady ( Surb Astvatsatsin ) of Haritschavank (1201), of Tegherivank (1213, southern slope of the Aragaz ) and of Nor Varagavank (1230, northeast of Idschewan ) have such partitioned corner rooms .
The only entrance is on the west. The south and east sides are divided on the outside by two deep, vertical triangular niches that reach the height of the eaves. The tambour is dominated by a folding roof that merges into the wall zone with a three-tiered cornice. Four narrow window slots on the drum in the cardinal points and window slots in the middle of the gable ensure sparse light inside.
The building sculpture on the outer walls includes, in addition to simple profiles that frame the window and door, some sculptural animal reliefs. There are two relief stones in the middle of the south facade. On the right, above the sundial, two pigeons are drinking from a mug. To the left, a large eagle is holding a small bird in its claws. Another eagle above the south window on the drum has caught a ram. Various animal heads also protrude from under the roof edge of the drum. Animal reliefs with a symbolic character were often taken from pre-Christian folk beliefs and can also be found on contemporary Muslim gravestones. The coat of arms of the Orbelian family - a lion fighting a bull - is depicted on the west side of the drum. This coat of arms can be seen in a larger form on the north gable of Surb Karapet in Tsaghats Kar. There, as here, an eagle with a lamb in its claws represents the coat of arms of the Proschian family.
Surb Nshan
The Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, built in the north, is a single-nave building, the barrel vault of which is reinforced by a central belt arch. The side walls are divided by two narrow arched niches. The semicircular apse is illuminated by a small window slot. The only other source of light is an equally narrow window above the entrance to the west. Except for a few incised crosses, the room has no ornamental design.
The semicircular archivolt above the entrance, designed by fan-shaped hollows in the manner of muqarnas , encloses a tympanum with a lively hunting scene. A rider stabs a lion with his lance. A bird appears at the top on each side, a sheep in the middle and a large peacock next to it.
More buildings
The two churches are surrounded on all sides by remains of buildings from the 13th and 14th centuries, the walls of which are largely made of uncut stones. In the south some rectangular walls made of carefully assembled stone blocks were preserved, which came to light during excavations in 1970 and were recognized as a single-nave church. This oldest church had a semicircular apse and two narrow side rooms. In the north it was surrounded by profane buildings. Traces of a gawit were found in the west .
A larger excavation field is located a few meters further north on the gently sloping terrain. Walls connected in irregular rectangular structures were prepared up to a height of one meter above the ground. To the south of the churches there are some khachkars from the 13th century, the oldest being dated 1215. The churches were last restored around 1980.
literature
- Jean-Michel Thierry: Armenian Art . Herder, Freiburg / B. 1988, ISBN 3-451-21141-6
- Thomas F. Mathews, Avedis Krikor Sanjian: Armenian Gospel Iconography: The Tradition of the Glajor Gospel . Dumbarton Oaks Studies 29. Harvard University, Washington 1991
Web links
- Rick Ney: Vayot's Dzor. TourArmenia, 2009, p. 15
- Tanahati Monastery . Armeniapedia
- Tanahat (Tanadeh) Monastery. Armenian Heritage
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mathews, Sanjian, pp. 15–15
- ^ Patrick Donabédian: Documentation of the art places . In: Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 587
- ^ Bernard Jeu: A Note on Some Armenian Philosophers. In: Studies in Soviet Thought. Vol. 13, No. 3/4, Springer, September – December 1973, pp. 251–264, here p. 252
- ↑ Mathews, Sanjian, p.14
- ^ Gladzor University Historic-Cultural Preserve-Museum. Armenian Heritage
- ↑ Sen Arevschatian: Armenian Philosophy in the Middle Ages. In: Armenia. Rediscovery of an old cultural landscape. (Exhibition catalog) Museum Bochum 1995, p. 224
- ↑ Mathews, Sanjian, p.7
- ↑ Mathews, Sanjian, S. 18, 20
- ↑ Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 208
- ↑ Stepan Mnazakanjan: Plastic . In: Burchard Brentjes , Stepan Mnazakanjan, Nona Stepanjan: Art of the Middle Ages in Armenia. Union Verlag (VOB), Berlin 1981, p. 232
- ^ Patrick Donabédian: Documentation of the art places . In: Jean-Michel Thierry, p. 587