V - XIII AD - Aragatsotn Region

"Hovhannavank Monastery - General View" © 1999 Raffi Kojian, All Rights Reserved

Ohanavan (1403 v) was resettled by migrants from Mush in 1828. Perched on the Kasagh gorge rim, Hovhannavank* is a major monument from the 7th c. and later, the best documented of the major Armenian monasteries due to a manuscript of pious history compiled in 1686 by the Archdeacon Zakaria. The monastery was dedicated to John the Baptist, and has a 12th c. fortification wall with towers to the W, a 13th c. church and gavit (a rebuilding financed in part by Kurd Vachutian), and an early single-aisle church. The monastery has rich stone decoration, and many inscriptions. According to one high on the N wall of the so-called “tapanatun”, “By the grace of beneficent God, in the reign of Queen Tamara daughter of the great George, in the year 642 (AD 1200), of the race of Torgom, we the brothers Zakaria and Ivane, sons of Sargis the great, son of Avag Zakaria, when the light of God’s grace rose and entered Armenia and strengthened our weakness in the battle against the enemies of Christ’s cross and destroyed their power and quenched their violence and the country of Ararat was delivered from the heavy yoke of their servitude, we wished to make offering and gave the tribute of grace to the Holy Forerunner of Hovhannavank...”

The source of the text above is the Rediscover Armenia guide.

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The monastery complexes of Hovhannavank and Saghmosavank are five kilometers apart and situated in the villages of the same names of the Ashtarak district. Both monuments perch on the edge of the precipitous gorge of the Kasakh river. Their silhouettes dominate the adjacent villages and rise sharp against the background of the mountains crowned by Mt.Aragats.

The most ancient structure in Hovhannavank is a basilica typical of the fifth century. It was rebuilt in 573 and repeatedly renovated later. The rhythmic arrangement of the horseshoe-shaped wall arches, resting on wall-attached pilasters, adds to the impression of the interior being extended in length. A structure of a broken plan adjoining the basilica from the west is what remains of another ancient church which underwent repeated reconstructions.

The main temples of the monasteries erected by Prince Vache Vachutyan — the Church of Zion in Saghmosavank (1215) and the Church of Karapet in Hovhannavank (1216— 1221) belong to the same type of cross-winged domed structure with two-floor annexes in all the corners of the building. Subcupola space predominates in the interiors of both churches, which is reflected in the exterior shapes of these structures.

The church of Karapet is distinguished by more refined decoration. The barrier of the church’s altar dais was composed of fancy-shaped patterned stones — five-pointed stars, pentagons and diamonds — framed with half-round fillet. This kind of patterning was characteristic of the decoration of the thirteen-century Armenian churches (Harich, Dsekh, Stepanosavank, etc.)

Exterior decoration was chiefly concentrated on the dome and on the three facades. The 12-hedral drum of the dome (which collapsed for the second time in 1919, breaking most of the southern facade) was of a considerable height and decorated with an arcature on twin half-columns. [Webmasters note:  Dome was reconstructed in 1999 and entire renovation will be complete in 2001.]

The central window of the eastern facade was framed with twin half-round nosings. This probably shows the influence of Kober and Akhtala. The half-round nosings run around two diagonally-placed squares with circles inside and, above the window, around a circle and a square, whereupon they divide at the level of the gable bottom and stretch towards the ornamented triangles placed at the bases of the cornices. A similar decoration is to be seen on the western facade, now almost totally blocked from view by a vestry, and also graced the southern wall of the temple, now in ruins.

"Hovhannavank Monastery - secret tunnel to canyon" © 1999 Raffi Kojian, All Rights Reserved

The western portal is decorated with columns arranged in a perspective. The door opening is framed with eight-point stars covered, just as the spaces between them, with fine floral ornament stylistically connected with the decoration of the interior. In the tympanum there is a bas-relief with a representation of the "wise and unwise maidens". In the center there is a large figure of Christ, seated on a throne with his hands raised and with his face turned left. With his right hand he blesses the "wise" ones, eyeing him with humility, and with his left he reproaches the "unwise" ones. The figure-outlining garments— Christ’s richly embroidered attire and simple dresses of the maidens — are conveyed most realistically.

The four-column vestries, adjacent to the main churches from the west, are very much unlike each other. In Saghmosavank the vestry was built in the second quarter of the 13th century, soon after the church of Zion. The wall-attached abutments of the vestry differ in plan configurations. Some consist of pilaster-attached semicircular and faceted shafts, others of six round and still others of one faceted and two round shafts.

The roofings of the sections are also different. Besides the usual barrel vaults, there are complicated stone structures in the shape of lierne fancy vaults consisting of small cloister vaults, corner passages decorated with rows of tre- and quaterfoils, and flat ceilings.

The central section is crowned with a 12-hedral truncated tent on a square base. Its eastern facet is decorated with the representation of the cross against the background of a fine ornament, and the rest — with a geometrical ornament in relief. The southern window, a rather broad one. is a double-arched opening with small columns, similar in its decoration to the windows of the western facade of the 1211 vestry in Sanahin.

The most interesting portal is the western one composed of a rectangular outer and two interior arched framings and sunk into the wall. The tympanum of the door opening is decorated with stars and diamonds covered with a carved ornament similar in style to the decoration of the western portal of the church of Zion. The space between the niches is filled with small diagonally-placed diamonds which serve as a connecting link between the smooth facade and the line ornamentation of the entrance tympanum.

The gavit (narthex) of Hovhannavank. built by Prince Kurd, the son of Vache Vachutyan, in 1250, is no less remarkable from the artistic point of view. Its abutments are more uniform than those in the gavit of Saghmosavank. The roofings of the sections are more variegated: the middle eastern one is a system of stalactites, the corner south-eastern one is made up of intersecting lines, the middle southern section is a flat stone ceiling and the section adjoining the western side is crowned, at the entrance, by a dome-like roof

The roofing of the central section is of special interest, It is crowned with a twelve-column rotund belfry, the biggest one in diameter (6.5 m) among the similar structures of Armenia.

"Hovhannavank Monastery - General View" © 1999 Raffi Kojian, All Rights Reserved

The belfry was built later than the gavit, probably In 1274, during the capital repairs of the building. This is indicated by the shape of the supporting gird of the rotunda and by the fact that it is sunk into the roofing. The difference in the height marks between the top of the facade gables and the rotunda bottom suggests that originally the central section of Hovhannavank's gavit had a lofty tent resting on intersecting arches, similar to the tents of the thirteenth-century vestries in Arzakan, Makaravank and Khoranashat. The small arches, connecting the round and octagonal columns of the rotunda, are trimmed at the top with inclined cornices which point to the umbrella shape of the roof that existed previously. Its present conical shape probably goes back to 1651 when church underwent repairs.

The right half of the southern facade, just as that of Saghmosavank vestry, is accentuated by a double archway the arches of which are not semicircular but pointed.

The western facade has a most imposing look. In the center, there is a rectangular portal with a shallow door niche framed with an arch which rests on small columns with identical spherical bases and capitals. The surface of the tympanum is filled with a many-line inscription which make the impression of a fine ornament. The space between the entrance niche and the framing is covered with an ornament of relief diamonds carved on stone slabs. The portal is extended by a twin window with an arched top, decorated along the edge by a relief of stalactites, just as the capital of the column. Judging by depressions in the external vertical facets, the windows were originally of a different, probably cross-like shape, like the twin windows of the altar apse of the church of St. Grigorv in Tatev.

Text and floorplan from "Architectural Ensembles of Armenia"
O. Khalpakhchian, published in Moscow by Iskusstvo Publishers in 1980.

HOVHANNAVANK PLAN the main temple of 1216-1221 the gavit of 1250 the basilican church of the 5th-6th centuries the ruins of an ancient church of the 4th-5th centuries the railing of the 13th-17th centuries the memorial column of 1311