Arqakaghni monastery

The monastery Arqakaghni (Armenian Արքակաղնի վանք ) was an Armenian monastery in the southern province of Adana in Turkey today, 9 km south-east of the ancient city of Mopsuestia, today's Yakapınar in the east of Çukurova.

It was built in 1122 and destroyed during the 1915 genocide against the Armenians.

Naming

The monastery has two different names:

Exterior

The Arqakaghni Monastery consisted of several churches and was in a forest of oaks, plane trees and olive trees. The main church was surp Asdvadzadzin ( Armenian: Holy Mother of God).

History

The Arqakaghni Monastery was founded in 1122 AD near Mopsuestia, an ancient city in the Kingdom of Lesser Armenia as the seat of the Bishop of Mopsuestia. It was a library of rare medieval Armenian books and manuscripts, college and university. It had a scriptorium and was the center of Armenian folk and sacred music.

The following medieval historians mentioned the Arqakaghni Monastery:

• Vardan Areveltsi ( Վարդան Արեւելցի, XIII century)
• Kirakos Gandzaketsi ( Կիրակոս Գանձակեցի, XIII century)
• Smbat Gundstabl ( Սմբատ Գունդստաբլ, XIII century)
• Hovhannes Yerznkatsi ( Հովհաննես Երզնկացի, XIII cen. )

The medieval Armenian writer and priest Vardan Aygektsi studied here.

In the years 1206-08 the Arqakaghni Monastery official residence of the Archbishop David Arqakaghneci was. In the monastery were King Levon II, buried his father Stephane ( Ստեփանե ) and Grigor Apirat.

An earthquake in 1269 damaged the monastery, in 1284 it was rebuilt and remained up to the massacres of Armenians in Adana Vilayet 1909, when it was destroyed again. During the genocide, in 1915 it was finally destroyed.