Pemzashen

Pemzaschen, Pemzashen (Armenian Պեմզաշեն, " built of pumice " ), from the 19th century until 1940 Mahmudcuk ( Mahmnutcuk, Magmudzhuk ), is a village in the northwestern Armenian province of Shirak with 3322 inhabitants according to the official statistics from January 2012. In the center remained preserve the ruins of a building complex of three churches which are dated to the 6th- 7th century.

Location

40.59333333333343.94Koordinaten: 40 ° 35 ' 36 "N, 43 ° 56' 24" E

Pemzaschen situated at an altitude of 1872 meters on the northwestern slopes of Mount Aragats five kilometers southwest of the town of Artik. On the grass -covered, stony and treeless hills around cattle is mainly operated. Agriculture is not there instead.

In Maralik, about 30 kilometers south of Gyumri, branches from the M1 between Yerevan and Gyumri to the east, a road that leads to Pemzaschen past first to Artik and later on the plateau of Tsaghkahovit direction Vanadzor in the northeast of the country.

On the Pemzaschen south leaving road to the first junction keep left after three kilometers, the higher-lying village Lernakert achieve. Halfway the ruins of Sion Church ( Surb Sion) is of 1001 of the former monastery Makaravank from the 10th to the 13th centuries. Near it is from the edge of a small ravine below the rock face a chapel with a grassy saddle roof from the 18th century to see.

Townscape

In the 1989 census, the population was 3384. The onset of the economic decline after the end of the Soviet era in 1991 rural exodus led to a population decline. In 2001 the census 2862 population. By 2012 the state was reached in 1989 again.

The mounted next to the cattle in the home gardens of fruit and vegetable farms is used to self-sufficiency. Town center is a tree-lined park with a fountain, near which there are several small grocery stores. On the opposite side of the street, the church ruins are hidden behind a row of houses.

Churches

The resulting church ruins of pink tufa in the center are in a depression about two feet below the level of the surrounding terrain. About the three original churches whose dating can only be made via style comparisons, a larger church was built at a later time. Your wall residues are completely removed today.

Church hall

Probably in the 5th or 6th century was an elongated nave church, by the 1976 the lowest layer of the stone walls was exposed via a stepped base. The building formed a rectangle about 8 × 17 meters with a horseshoe-shaped apse, the pentagonal stepped out of the east wall outward. As in the church of Lernakert affiliated three, on wall pairs of piers supporting the transverse arches barrel vault. The two orders in the west and in the central south wall. The resulting bases of the pilasters show stacked tori Taustäbe strips and similar forms.

Trikonchos

Heavily damaged, but the best preserved within the ensemble is a church with Trikonchos in which three horseshoe-shaped apses are arranged around a square central area, while the western arm was extended considerably with a basic rectangular shape. The earliest small cross-domed churches ( Lmbatavank or the Mother of God Church of talin from the 7th century ), the cross shape is retained in the outline of the building. The Church of Pemzaschen contrast, belongs to a type in which all the side arms are fully covered and enclosed within an outer rectangle. She was grown with their north -west corner of the southern apse of the church hall.

In the corners between the conches are in three storeys rectangular, vaulted tons of side rooms that are not, as usual, directly accessible from the main room, but only through narrow corridors of the Ostkonche. In these well- hidden spaces may manuscripts or church treasure were kept. About the interior wall corners to stretch arches and form a square. The transition to an octagonal cross-section of the main cylinder is made by squinches in the four corners. From Tambour conduct eight more squinches to the base circle of the now missing dome. The inner walls of the main cylinder are divided by lively round niches with final Archivolts in each side and with windows in the cardinal directions. Fan-shaped relief pattern with bows, rings, medallions and balls over the squinches make for an exceptionally rich and varied design. On the diagonal wall surfaces between the windows are on the outside stones in the form of inscription panels ( tabula ansata ) attached.

The figural relief outside on the lintel over the front door is only available on the right side. You can see the statue of Mary with the infant Jesus on her left arm. She is adored by two smaller figures to their pages, where it could be the donor. Of the two angels hovering over the figures, the round plastic protruding right angel is obtained. The frieze above the arched windows are intricately designed with horseshoe shapes, palmettes and straps. The Marie -portrait and other motifs seem taken from the Byzantine iconography of the first half of the 7th century. The dating therefore occurs in the middle of the 7th century.

Chapel

The essential parts upright to eaves -nave chapel adjacent to the south wall of the Trikonchos. The rectangular room with a horseshoe-shaped eastern apse is lit by each one arched windows in south and east walls. Four tabulae ansatae as at the reel can also be found on the south wall, another fills the Tympanonfeld over the Türstürz on the west side. The architectural sculpture makes a creation at the same time probably the Trikonchos.

Makaravank

The Church of Makaravank on the road to Lernakert was a jacketed cross-domed church with a semicircular apse. The lateral rectangular side rooms in the east were accessible from the side arms from. In the corners of the west side are instead of side rooms rectangular open niches. Have been preserved large portions of the exterior walls and two of the four transverse arches that once supported the reel.

On the west side a Gawit was built out with a cross- ton at a later period, of which a wall the rest of the northern narrow side has been preserved and its vault outline there are signs on the wall.