NCIE
NCIE
Zvartnots
Zvartnots, an Armenian early medieval architectural monument, is located 3 km southeast of Vagharshapat. In 1989, it was included in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List.
First letter of name
Historian Sebeos called the temple Zvartnots. "He built a church there with the heavenly name "Zvartnots", which means a multitude of heavenly soldiers / zvartuns, or angels / who appeared to St. Gregory during a vision.
Kamsar Avetisyan writes in his "Armenian Etudes". "It was called so because it was also dedicated to the heavenly merrymakers. After all, "fun" also means "angel" in Armenian. So Zvartnots also means "Angel's Nest".
Only Sebeos mentions the temple under the name of Zvartnots, all other historians mention the temple under the name of Saint Grigor. Other sources also mention Saint Grigor of Vagharshapat and Saint Grigor of Arapar.
The story
Zvartnots was built during the reign of Catholicos Nerses G Tayets, in 643-652. It is assumed that the altar of the pagan god Tir was in the area of Zvartnots. According to Sebeos, in 301 AD, the Armenian king Trdatus III and Gregory the Illuminator met here. There is no information about the destruction of the temple in historical sources (probably it was destroyed by an earthquake). it is known that it stood until the 10th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, the ruined temple was covered with earth, excavations were carried out in 1901-07 at the initiative of Reverend Khachik Dadyan, and from 1904, under the scientific leadership of Toros Toramanian. According to the excavated materials, before Zvartnots there were pagan IV-V century structures here. The oldest is the 0.63 m x 2.7 m monument (located in the Zvartnots Museum) with a cuneiform inscription of Rusa B. Excavations revealed the cathedral, the Catholicos palace with auxiliary buildings (bathroom, cells, etc.). The floor of the temple, in some places the lower masonry, the capitals of the columns, anchors, the sculpted sundial, mosaic, mural and other remains have been preserved. For the construction of the temple, tuffs of different qualities and shades, tail stone, checha stone, foam stone (pumice), vanakat, etc. were used.
The temple was built in the center of a seven-tiered pedestal. Externally, it was a three-level, successively decreasing, unified building of 3 cylindrical harmonic volumes, the core of which is the square. The tabernacles of the latter are united by 4 massive gables, which, together with the upper 4 connecting arches and sails, form a monolithic dome-bearing system. The temple had 5 porches. The zone covering the upper part of the front of the first level of the temple is sculpted with vines and pomegranate branches. 9 out of 32 bas-reliefs of spiritual and secular persons have been preserved in the meeting part of the wall vaults. Inside the temple, the winged eagles of the chiefs, the rhythm of the wall decoration, the smoothness of the pediments, the high dome with all the decorations, gave the structure a renaissance. Johan, probably the name of the architect of the temple, is preserved on one of the high sculptures of the temple.
Armenian architecture was influenced by Zvartnots. It is a unique collection of early medieval Armenian architecture, sculpture, and decorative art. Among the monuments of Armenian architecture that have come down to us, the churches of Ishkhan and Banak built by Nerses G Tayetsu (VII century), Lyakit (VII century) in Aghvank, St. Gregory of Gagkashen (XI century) in Ani.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the colonnades of the Zvartnots tabernacles, eagle-headed columns, and the lower part of the walls of the first level were restored.
In 1905, Toros Toramanian created the scientific reconstruction of Zvartnots, the accuracy of which was proved in 1906. According to the historian Asoghik, with a model found in the excavations of Gagkashen St. Grigor Church built on the example of Zvartnots in Anium at the beginning of the 11th century [the other physical evidence is the wall sculptures of Sainte-Chapelle Church in Paris (1243-48).
The temple was built in the center of a seven-tiered pedestal. Externally, it was a three-level, successively decreasing, unified building of 3 cylindrical harmonic volumes, the core of which is the square. The tabernacles of the latter are united by 4 massive gables, which, together with the upper 4 connecting arches and sails, form a monolithic dome-bearing system. The temple had 5 porches. The zone covering the upper part of the front of the first level of the temple is sculpted with vines and pomegranate branches. 9 out of 32 bas-reliefs of spiritual and secular persons have been preserved in the meeting part of the wall vaults. Inside the temple, the winged eagles of the chiefs, the rhythm of the wall decoration, the smoothness of the pediments, the high dome with all the decorations, gave the structure a renaissance. Johan, probably the name of the architect of the temple, is preserved on one of the high sculptures of the temple.
Armenian architecture was influenced by Zvartnots. it is a unique collection of early medieval Armenian architecture, sculpture, and decorative art. Among the monuments of Armenian architecture that have come down to us, the churches of Ishkhan and Banak built by Nerses G Tayetsu (VII century), Lyakit (VII century) in Aghvank, St. Gregory of Gagkashen (XI century) in Ani.
