Saint Hripsime Church

The Armenian Apostolic St. Hripsime Church ( Surb Hripsime ) in Echmiadzin ( province of Armavir, Armenia ) was erected by Catholicos Komitas above that of Isaac the Great built the mausoleum of Saint Hripsime and according to inscriptions on the west entrance and under the eastern apse and details of the historian and eyewitness Sebeos completed in the year 618. The church is one of the oldest in the country and it is considered the most typical specimen of Armenian architecture during the era of the early Byzantine architecture. The classical architecture has unfolded a style-defining action in the sequence. It is listed together with the western and central located in the city's cathedral and two other churches of Echmiadzin since 2000 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

History

Saint Hripsime was built on the remains of a pagan place of worship and the place of martyrdom of Hripsime, which took place around the year 300 and the conversion of the Armenian king Trdat III. and led the people to Christianity. Hripsime to have been a relative of the Roman emperor Claudius, the. Before they desiring Emperor Diocletian with 70 virgins and their teacher, the holy abbess Gayane, escaped from a Roman monastery on Edessa to Armenia There was Trdat III. attention to them, but also they refused him because they wanted to remain a nun, so he had her beheaded. Gayane and the virgins were executed elsewhere in Echmiadzin, there the same as the Cathedral of Etchmiadzin also a World Heritage Site churches Surb Surb Gayane and Schoghakat emerged. The 491 surviving through the Armenian historian Agathangelos legend, Jesus showed Gregory the Illuminator in a vision of the place of martyrdom of Hripsime by beating with a golden hammer on the relevant site. He urged him to build on there a tomb in her memory.

Architecture

The church lies on a link road to Yerevan is surrounded by a wall with corner towers and has square -clad outwardly apses, one in each direction. This type of Tetrakonchos is typical of the Armenian architecture and also found in other churches at this time application, so where in Awan, Gaharnovit and Sissian. The rooms are grouped radially around the dome, about their age, whether original or renewed in the 10th to 11th centuries, the experts are divided. The drum is sixteen -sided and has twelve windows. On the base of the dome are four towers that reinforce the first, its stability, integrate, on the other their polygonal shape visually in the rectangular layout of the church.

In the corners of the church, there are small walk-in chambers. The vaulted Martyrion with the relics of St. Hripsime lies under the eastern apse. Besides her three catholicoi are buried from the first half of the 18th century in the church and set up some Chatschkars. Overall, the design of the light construction relatively large interior space, above all on the vertical axis of the dome -oriented.

In the wall of the apse side niches are incorporated, which extend to the height of the facade, and the church basement to increase stability during earthquakes, which St. Hripsime has stood up today. Thanks to twelve ribs at the same distance, the church is built of lighter material, which the conical apex, ie the top of the dome relieved, and keeps the center of gravity low. These measures increase the resistance occurring at the surface Rayleigh waves in an earthquake.

The Church of Saint Hripsime is eponymous for the Armenian Zentralbautyp Awan - Hripsime whose four conches are extended by lateral corner spaces into a complex floor plan and represents an enlargement and improvement over the static Mastara type. This contrasts with the mid-7th century, the two kilometers from the other cathedral of Zvartnots whose Tetrakonchos was stabilized by an outer circular handling.

The Armenian historian Arakel of Tabriz reported as a witness that the church was renovated in 1651-1653. Here, a small portico was built, among others, the west side. 1751 was an altarpiece from pickled pearl, which testifies to the high level that had the Craft at that time in Armenia. 1790 by four pillars based, two-storey bell tower was erected in front of the west portal, whose tent roof rests on an octagonal rotunda with eight columns.

When renovations from 1959 to 1962, a system of 24 squinches was exposed under the large, relatively low drum. Also at this time discovered remnants of pre-Christian times under the church.

View from the west on Santa Hripsime

Southern apse with niches

Ground plan

Interior

Khachkar inside the church