Irind

Irind (Armenian Իրինդ ) is a village and rural community ( hamaynkner ) in the northern Armenian province Aragazotn with officially 943 inhabitants in 2012. In the center are the ruins of an unusual polygonal church with seven star-shaped apses remained, in line with established view that 7th century is dated.

Location

Irind lies at an altitude of 1884 meters on the western slopes of Mount Aragats. From the M1 motorway between Yerevan and Gyumri branches 18 km north of Arutsch and five kilometers south of Talin a road from the village Katnagbhyur. From the center, one kilometer east of the M1, performs a good asphalt road to the eastern outskirts, where you turn off at the junction of a coming of Davtashen side street to the north and reached after three kilometers Irind.

The plain between the valley of the river Akhurian at the Turkish border, which is 30 kilometers away from Irind, and the Aragats is a flat corrugated treeless grasslands, which is primarily used as grazing land for cattle.

Townscape

In the census of 2001, the official population was given as 840. In January 2012, lived according to official statistics in Irind 943 inhabitants. Like the neighboring villages is Irind in a valley that is crossed by the rivers of nearby sources. The farmhouses, stables and barn are surrounded by gardens in which grow apple and cherry trees, and vegetables are grown.

The town was founded in 1921 by Armenians who had fled from the area known as Western Armenia in today's Eastern Turkey for the genocide in 1915. 46 of the arrivals were from the city Sason and 33 of Muş. In the circumstances of the founding reminds a monument in the central square, which shows two giant eagle made ​​of pink tufa slabs that are connected to each other via an archway. The double-headed eagle is from the 4th century a dynastic character of Armenian Christianity.

The coming of the south road ends at this place; the compact town center with the church ruins is located east of it. The city and its size for an agrarian village embossed oversized acting course was laid out as a park next to a big town hall building. Park, street and city hall are due Andranik Markarian, who from 2000 until his death in 2007 Prime Minister of Armenia was and whose native of Sason parents lived here. In honor of Mark Arjans a larger than life white ( symbolizing purity ) marble statue in 2010 next to the eagle monument erected.

An ecological reforestation program donated between 2007 and 2010 the place around 4000 trees, of which 3200 planted in private gardens of fruit trees and 800 other trees that are on public land, provide for shade.

Church

Origin of the ray-shaped domes

The oldest and most famous Armenian Zentralkuppelbau with four apses ( Tetrakonchos ) is the cathedral of Zvartnots, which is usually dated by historical and epigraphic sources in the middle of the 7th century and only a few stone rows and columns stand upright from the. The dome spanned the entire central region and was carried by columns and half columns at the four corners of the inner wall. This type of Tetrakochos with a circular deal was repeatedly imitated, among other things, in the 10th century in the round church of Bana. In another, regardless incurred Central Construction a smaller dome rests on four arranged in a square free -standing pillars, where the distance between pillars and walls is bridged by transverse arches. As model for this development applies to the resulting 485 new construction of the Cathedral of Etchmiadzin ( Echmiadzin II ), followed by the first phase of today completely destroyed Theodoros Church in Bagaran, which is dated 624-631.

As mental development of the Cathedral of Zvartnots, which in turn was based Tetrakonchen precursor in the Mediterranean and Syria, the complex polygonal ground plans with six or eight apses interpret. However, a chronological sequence of increasing Apsidenzahl can not be proven, if at all present reliable datings. In the 10-11. Century occurred in the Armenian architecture both central buildings without having to deal with four, six and eight conches on.

In the 7th century six-and Achtkonchenanlagen in Armenia were rare, much more frequently they occurred in the Byzantine architecture. The only two known Achtkonchenanlagen of the 7th century in Armenia after Jean -Michel Thierry Zoravar the Church at Jeghward ( 661-685 ) and the Church of Irind. Radial Mehrkonchenkirchen from the 10th century, for example, the Church of Saint Gregory ( Surb Grigor ) in Ani with six apses and the local Church of the Redeemer ( 1036 dated) with eight apses. Christina Maranci also dated Irind in the 10th century, while Jean -Michel Thierry adopts on the basis of the architectural relationship with Zvartnots and Jeghegis end of the 7th century.

Design

In contrast to the closely related Church of Jeghward with her almost symmetrical octagonal floor plan of the church Irind has seven equally large horseshoe-shaped conchae ( Heptakonchos ) that are grouped radially around a center. Only in the West is instead another conch, a rectangular space that is entered from the input first. The entrance hall was covered with a cross vault without ribs. A second entrance was reconstructed in the south. In addition, approximately square adjoining rooms, which are arranged on both sides of Ostkonche and be entered from the two adjacent conches. The side rooms are within a rectangular outer wall that extends to the east from the idealized round basic shape.

The exterior walls are divided by broad triangular niches between the conches. In plan, this results in a star shape with a symmetrical structure by the rectangular recesses in the east and west is interrupted. Josef Strzygowski counted this type in 1918 to the "Eight passports with triangular slots ". The outer edges of the conches are accented by half-columns with cubic capitals doubled between which arches over the niches close to the semicircle. Here, projecting entablature switch to the straight wall surfaces lying in the plane of the wall arches over the niches from.

Inner wear simple half-columns at the corners of the wall conches transverse arches, between which Pendentifs reconciled to the root circle of the main cylinder. The wall panels of the inner circular and outer octagonal tambour be pierced by large arched windows. Then arranged in the windows of the underlying Konchenwände. In the Tambour corners cut V-shaped niches one as well at the Johannes Church ( Surb Hovanes ) in Mastara ( north Talin, mid 6th or mid 7th century ) and St. George's Church ( Surb Gevorg ) in Garnahovit ( in Artik, 7 century) occur. The following earthquakes at least since the 19th century missing dome had a diameter of 8.35 meters.

Photographs from the early 20th century and from the 1990s show the church in a similar state of preservation as a debris field with the upright north wall and a wall segment of the main cylinder, which contains two window openings. After the turn of the millennium extensive restoration began in the direction of an approximate reconstruction using new stone slabs. 2013, the external walls were largely built from brick to eaves and a few layers of the main cylinder. The walls are made - typical of Eastern Armenia - of carefully hewn pink Tuffplatten and a core of cast stonework.