Gharghavank

40.356944.5231Koordinaten: 40 ° 21 ' 25 "N, 44 ° 31' 23" E

Zoravar (Armenian Զորավոր ), other transcriptions Soravar, Sorawor, is a company incorporated in the second half of the 7th century round church with eight apses at Jeghward in the Central Armenian province of Kotayk. The outside of the village Zoravan ( Զորավան, formerly Pokravan ) preserved ruin is the earliest octagonal church in Armenia.

Location

Zoravan is located at 1488 meters above sea level some 22 kilometers north of the provincial capital Yerevan and 3 kilometers northeast of the small town Jeghward on the regional road H4 in a hilly plateau. From the data used as grazing land for cattle and sheep and as irrigated farmland level of Jeghward the wide craggy volcanic Ara ( Arai instructive ) rises in the north with an altitude of 2575 meters. The H4 continues north until it joins the highway between Ashtarak and Aparan and surrounded thereby the Ara on its eastern flank. The overgrown with grass and scattered bushes hills were forested in the Middle Ages. The nearest remnants of oak and maple forests are found on the northern slope of the Ara and on the Tegheniats mountain range above the village Buzhakan.

In Zoravan lived in January 2008, according to official statistics in 1566 inhabitants. The area has been inhabited since pre-Christian times, the village is, however, mostly due to immigrants of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century from Turkey. Before the southern edge leads to a small cemetery a dirt road left to the top and achieved - at two branches keeping to the left - just under two kilometers from the village, the church, which is located on the side of a rock-strewn hill. Approximately 100 meters to the northwest on the hilltop stands at an old cemetery, a grave -nave chapel, which once had a barrel vault, which was covered with stone slabs. The semi-circular apse and part of the roof remained. Some grave stones and fragments of Chatschkaren in the vicinity of the chapel date from the Early Christian period.

History

According to the historian Vartan Bardjerberdtsi in the 13th century was Prince Grigor Mamikonian, build the church. He was about 661-685 governor of Armenia; in a troubled time when the kingdom had already been resolved by several Arab invasions. 640 Arab troops conquered the capital city Dvin and taught at the population to massacre, in which also the Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church Ezr was killed. With continued external pressure, the Armenian noble families split into supporters of the conquerors from the south and followers of the opposing Byzantines. There were individual fractions repeatedly changed sides. 701 the Arabs Armenia had annexed formally. An explanation of why small tower-like round churches were built in the 7th century could be that this much easier to defend in raids were as elongated basilicas.

Architecture Historical Development

The oldest extant Armenian central buildings are systems with four apses, which start in the four directions of a square room. The central area dominates a drum with a dome and a final conical or pyramidal roof. Several forms are distinguished: drum and dome resting on four free -standing pillars as the new construction of the standing at the beginning of the Armenian Cathedral of Echmiadzin Tetrakonchen ( Echmiadzin II) to 485 This guy was, except for the Cathedral of Bagaran ( 624-631 ) not pursued.

At a second Zentralbautyp include cross-domed churches without center pillars, which are called dome squares with brace and niches in which the spool is supported by the four inner wall corners. This originated in the 7th century as a small Trikonchen ( Mother of God church in Talin ) or as Monokonchen ( Lmbatavank, Kamrawor Church of Ashtarak ). In the latter, the semi-circular conch of the sanctuary in the east are facing three rectangular side arms. A variant with an enlarged dome that rests on the middle of each side of the exterior walls and thus spans the entire interior, probably comes for the first time at St. John's Church in Mastara ago ( mid- 7th century ). In extensions of these layouts by the side of the altar this corner spaces are usually within a straight outer wall and give a partially jacketed construction. A central building is completely covered if he has additional rooms in all four corners that lie within a rectangular building structure. The oldest representatives of this type is the Cathedral of Awan, which is dated to the end of the 6th century. On Awan appropriate starting point of Georgian architecture is the monastery church of Djvari ( 586/-605/6 ).

In addition to the dome squares with four corner niches Josef Strzygowski categorized in 1918 and the pure Strebenischenbauten as " ray-shaped domes ." The origin of this third type of construction probably represents the Cathedral of Zvartnots, which is usually dated to the middle of the 7th century. The dome of the inner building structure rests here on a four pilasters strained square of transverse arches. Derived on the pillars thrust catch the compiled into a quatrefoil semicircular apses. Instead of massive brick Konchenwände possessed the Cathedral of Zvartnots on three sides in a semicircle established arcades which provide plenty of light in the interior, but at the same time making the design fragile. Therefore, the static hedge, an outer ring of walls was required of a deal around the central space formed on the ground floor. Later imitations include the Cathedral of Bana ( 900 ) in eastern Turkey and the Church of Gagik Gregory in Ani (late 10th century ) on the Turkish- Armenian border.

As a further development of the imaginary cathedral of Zvartnots the polygonal cracks can be understood with six or eight apses. However, a chronological development by increasing Apsidenzahl can not be proven, if at all present reliable datings. When the going back to Syria, nordmesopotamische and Byzantine models radiating dome churches in Armenia, built systems come at the same time with four, six and eight conches ago.

The oldest polygonal Konchenbau in Armenia is the Zoravar Church with eight apses, which forms an almost perfect circular shape which stabilizes without external dealings. The also octagonal church of Irind ( end of the 7th or 10th century ) deviates from this clear form. There, the west side is configured as a rectangular input space and the remaining seven apses are supplemented by two eastern side rooms. Zoravar and Irind are the only two Achtkonchenanlagen of the 7th century in Armenia. In addition, since 1976, is still a church with six apses at the village Aragads ( Aragats, Aragac ) (40 kilometers southeast of Ani on the Turkish border ) announced on Akhurian River, the late 6th or early 7th century must have been built. In their model probably the hexagonal church goes back to the citadel of Ani, which is dated inscription 1026. The Gregory Church ( Surb Grigor ) Ani (late 10th century ) also has six conches. Dated in the year 1036 is the local Church of the Redeemer with eight apses. From the second half of the 10th century central buildings were built with six apses in Georgia. A symmetrical octagonal floor plan with eight inscribed apses had the now destroyed church of Varzahan near the northeastern Turkish city of Bayburt, which can only be roughly dated to the 10th or 11th century.

Design

The circular outer wall around the eight semi-circular apses is divided by broad triangular niches between the apses, so that a 18- sided polygon results. The funnel-shaped top-closed triangular niches, which also occur as design elements of basilicas, are very likely Armenian origin. The conches close outside the center with straight wall surfaces from, only the wider conch on the east side is the outside pentagonal shaped and extends approximately over the circle out. The building is increased by a two-stage base.

The projecting into the space partitions of conches end at half-columns with cubic capitals, carrying a circumferential row of arches. It forms the basic structure, passing over the pendentives in the corners to round the inside and outside twelve-sided drum. A formerly existing, covered with stone slabs pyramid roof can only be guessed.

The architectural decoration is more economical than in Irind. The edges of the drum walls are highlighted with circular rods. Across the narrow arched windows in each Konchenwand run horseshoe-shaped friezes are decorated with different kinds of vines, leaf garlands with palmettes or pomegranates and geometric shapes. The throat of the projecting cornice at the main building is in relief with a basket weave; not again reconstructed cornice at the reel showed vines. Judging by remnants of plaster, these surfaces must once have been painted.

The entrance is in the west. There had probably grown a now missing Gawit at a restoration of the early 14th century, the input side consisted of three large arcades as in Mughni. 1947, the northern part of the building until then only was backed static. In the 1970s, further restoration work took place, so that today the main building is almost completely reconstructed. From the drum is about a quarter of the wall on the north side.