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Geghard Monastery, Churches, Azat Valley, Armenia, Wonders Of Armenia, Wonders Of The Churches, Heritage site
The monastery of Geghard includes a quantity of churches and tombs, most of them cut into the rock, which illustrate the very peak of Armenian medieval architecture.
The complex of medieval buildings is set into a landscape of great natural beauty, between towering cliffs at the entrance to the Azat Valley.
The Geghard complex is an exceptionally complete and well-preserved illustration of a medieval Armenian monastic foundation in a remote area of great pure beauty at the head of the Azat valley, surrounded by towering cliffs.
It includes a number of churches and tombs, most of them cut into the rock, which illustrate the very peak of Armenian medieval architecture and decorative art, with many innovatory features that had a profound influence on subsequent developments in the region.
It was founded in the 4th century, based on tradition by St Gregory the Illuminator. The very first monastery was destroyed by Arabs in the 9th century, but it was flourishing again by the 13th century. The monastery was famous due to the relics that it housed, the most celebrated the spear that wounded Christ on the Cross. Relics of the Apostles Andrew and John were donated in the 12th century and pious visitors made numerous grants of land, money, manuscripts and so on over the succeeding centuries.
Probably the most ancient section of the monastery complex of Haghpat is the small Chapel of St Gregory, lying to the east of and away from main group. It is excavated straight into the rock of the mountainside and is uncompleted. The earliest of the inscriptions on the external wall is from 1177. The ornate decoration of crosses on the facade extends from the built wall on to the rock-face below.
Built based on an inscription in 1215, the Kathoghikè (main church) is in the classic Armenian form, an equal-armed cross inscribed in a square in plan and covered with a dome on a square base. It is linked with the base by vaulting.
The east arm of the cross terminates in an apse, the remainder being square. In the corners there are small barrel-vaulted two-storey chapels. On the internal walls there are many inscriptions recording donations. The masonry of the external walls is specially finely finished and fitted. A gavit (entrance hall) links it with the first rock-cut church.
Geghard Monastery, Azat Valley, Churches, Armenia, 7 wonders, heritages, Monastery of Geghard, Upper Azat Valley
As is also customary in medieval Armenian architecture, the structure of this building reproduces that of the peasant hut, in which four massive free-standing columns in the centre support a roof of wooden beams with a hole in the middle to admit light. The ecclesiastical version, in stone, is an imposing structure.
The peripheral spaces caused by the location of the columns are variously roofed, while the central space is crowned by a dome with stalactites, the most perfect illustration of this technique anywhere in Armenia. The gavit was used for teaching and meetings, and for receiving pilgrims and visitors.
The first rock-cut church was built before 1250, entirely dug into the rock and on an equal-armed cruciform plan. To the east a roughly square chamber cut into the rock was one of the princely tombs (zamatoun) of the Proshyan dynasty.
This gives access to the 2nd rock-cut church built in 1283. The second zamatoun, reached by an external staircase, contains the tombs of the princes Merik and Grigor.
The monastery complex was encircled by a defensive wall in the 12th to 13th centuries. Most of the monks lived in cells excavated into the rock-face away from main enceinte, which have been preserved, along with some simple oratories.
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