AGENCY FOR CONSERVATION
OF HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL MONUMENTS
CATHEDRAL OF ZVARTNOTS
(C. 650–659 AD)
ZVARTNOTS CATHEDRAL (CATHEDRAL OF THE ANGELS) WAS BUILT IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY BY CATHOLICOS NERSES III AT THE TRADITIONAL SITE WHERE KING TRDAT AND ST. GREGORY THE ILLUMINATOR HAD MET DURING EVENTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE CONVERSION OF ARMENIA TO CHRISTIANITY IN 301 A.D. ACCORDING TO THE FIFTH CENTURY ARMENIAN HISTORIAN, AGATHANGELOS. ARMENIA THEN BECAME THE FIRST NATION IN HISTORY TO ADOPT CHRISTIANITY AS ITS OFFICIAL RELIGION. THE CATHEDRAL IS DEDICATED TO THE ANGELS WHO DESCENDED FROM ABOVE WITH CHRIST AND APPEARED TO ST. GREGORY IN A VISION. HIS RELICS WERE RELOCATED THERE BY THE TENTH CENTURY.
DESTROYED IN THE TENTH CENTURY EITHER BY AN EARTHQUAKE OR BY THE ARABS, THE CHURCH WAS NOT EXCAVATED UNTIL 1901–1907. ONLY THE FOUNDATIONS, PORTIONS OF THE VAULTING AND WALLS, SOME CAPITALS, BASES AND SECTIONS OF PIERS AND COLUMNS, AND FRAGMENTS OF RELIEFS SURVIVE. THESE REMAINS HELPED SCHOLARS PLAN AND UNDERTAKE A RECONSTRUCTION.
ERECTED ON A STEPPED PLATFORM, THE THREE–STORY CIRCULAR, DOMED CHURCH HAD AN OUTER, CONTINUOUS AMBULATORY WHICH ENCLOSED AN INNER QUATREFOIL. EACH FOIL CONSISTED OF SIX COLUMNS EXCEPT FOR THE EASTERN HEMICYCLE. A RECTANGULAR CHAMBER ON THE EAST WAS ADDED LATER. THE MASSIVE CENTRAL CUPOLA WAS SET ON PENDENTIVES AND ALSO, WITH THE USE OF SQUINCHES, WAS SUPPORTED BY ARCHES WHICH JOINED THE FOUR PIERS AND WERE BUTTRESSED BY THE SEMI–DOME VAULTS OF THE FOILS. THE SEMI–DOMES, IN TURN, WERE ABUTTED BY THE AMBULATORY VAULTS.
OF THE THREE CIRCULAR SECTIONS, THE BOTTOM LEVEL WAS THE LARGEST, AND THE UPPER LEVELS WERE OF DECREASING DIAMETERS RESPECTIVELY. EACH OF THE THIRTY–TWO SIDES OF THE FIRST TWO LEVELS AND THE SIXTEEN SIDES OF THE DRUM HAD ROUND WINDOWS.
ZVARTNOTS WAS DECORATED WITH BLIND ARCADES, RELIEF SCULPTURE, MOSAICS AND WALL PAINTINGS. SCULPTURAL FRAGMENTS INCLUDE NINE EXTERIOR SPANDREL FIGURES HOLDING CONSTRUCTION TOOLS, THE CAPITAL CARVED WITH THE GREEK MONOGRAM OF NERSES, AND THE LARGE EAGLE CAPITALS OF THE PIERS, THE ONLY ONES OF THIS TYPE IN ARMENIA.
(WITH THE GENEROSITY AND ASSISTANCE OF THE ARMENIAN LIBRARY AND MUSEUM OF AMERICA, IN WATERTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS.)
