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armenia > tourism > noravank
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XII-XIV AD - Amaghu, Vayots Dzor Region
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© 2001 Raffi Kojian, All Rights Reserved |
A
kilometer past Areni is the turnoff right for Noravank**, across the bridge and through a narrow gorge, whose stream has sadly disappeared into a large iron pipe. At the entrance to the gorge on the right is a cluster of high but shallow and unornamented caves, called Trchuneri Karayr (Bird Cave), with Bronze Age child burials. Further inside the gorge is the Magil cave on the left going a considerable distance into the hillside. Note huge boulder on right of the road outfitted as a picnic site. Beyond the caves, the gorge opens out and the monastery comes into view. The paved road continues up and to the left, ending in a parking lot below the monastery.
A gravel road continuing up the canyon ends after a few meters amid a welter of khorovats detritus. Continuing on foot, at the iron gates for the water project one can continue straight along the left bank of the stream toward a concealed picnic site with table and fire circle (about 200 meters) or else follow a path that slopes up to the left. This latter passes below the little chapel of St. Pokas, in which is the basin of a sacred spring and, according to “old tradition,” the site of a seep of miraculous healing oil from the saint’s buried remains. Modest votive crosses show that the shrine remains venerated. Past St. Pokas, the narrow, occasionally steep, but clear path climbs along the canyon side to a series of broad ledges with beautiful views of the cliffs.
Noravank ("New monastery") was founded by Bishop Hovhannes, Abbot of Vahanavank, who moved there in 1205. During the 13th and 14th centuries a series of princes of the Orbelian clan built churches which served as the burial site for the family. The monastery became the center of the Syunik bishopric. The nearest and grandest church is the Astvatsatsin (“Mother of God”), also called Burtelashen (“Burtel-built”) in honor of Prince Burtel Orbelian, its donor. The church, completed in 1339, is said to be the masterpiece of the talented sculptor and miniaturist Momik. In modern times the church has had a plain hipped roof, but in 1997 the drum and conical roof were rebuilt to reflect the original glory still attested by battered fragments. The ground floor (locked) contained elaborate tombs of Burtel and his family. Narrow steps projecting from the west façade lead up to the entrance to the church/oratory. Note the fine relief sculpture over the doors, Christ flanked by Peter and Paul.
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© 2001 Raffi Kojian, All Rights Reserved |
The source of the above text is the Rediscover Armenia guide.
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Some technical architectural information from "Architectural Ensembles of Armenia"
The monuments of Noravank are situated on a ledge of a deep winding gorge of a tributary of the Arpa river near the village of Amagu, Yeghegnadzor District. Noravank ensemble stands amidst the bizarre-shaped precipitous red cliffs. Built in place of an ancient cloister, it grew in the reign of Princes Orbelian of Syunik. In the 13th-14th centuries the monastery became a residence of Syunik's bishops and, consequently. a major religious and, later, cultural center of Armenia closely connected with many of the local seats of learning, primarily with Gladzor’s famed university and library.
The church of St. Karapet (the 9th-10th centuries), which has come down to us in ruins, is the most ancient monument of Noravank. To the north of it, there is the main temple, also dedicated to St. Karapet. Erected in 1221—1227, it belongs to the widespread cross-winged domed type with two-storey annexes in the corners. This building of clear-cut outline is decorated in a severe style. The front wall of the sanctuary partition is decorated with rhythmic rows of salient Greek crosses, carved on slabs, and the capitals of the interior half-columns — with trefoils. Judging by a fragment of the
churches model, which has survived, the dome had an octahedral drum with an umbrella-type roof.
The church of St. Grigory (the burial place of the Orbelians) was added by the architect Siranes to the northern wall of St. Karapet church in 1275. This is a modest
structure, rectangular in the plan, with a semi-circular altar and a vaulted
ceiling on a wall arch. The entrance with an arched tympanum is decorated with columns, and the altar apse is flanked with
khachkars and representations of doves in relief.
Of great interest are the vestry of St. Karapet church and the church of Astvatsatsin, built by Momik, the author of the miniatures for the Gospel, "Entombment" and "Angel Appearing to Holy Women", created in Glazdor in 1302, of the building of Astvatsatsin church in Areni village (1321), of its wonderful reliefs and of a number of khachkars.
The vestry, erected in 1261, was probably a four-pillar one. In 1321 the building, probably destroyed by an earthquake, was covered with a new roof in the shape of an enormous stone tent with horizontal divisions, imitating the wooden roof of the "azarashen" — type peasant home. This made the structure quite different from other Armenian monuments of the same kind. The ceiling has four rows of brackets forming stalactite vaulting with a square lighting aperture at the top. A broad protruding girth over the half-columns, the deep niches with khachkars and the low tent-like ceiling almost devoid of decoration give the dimly lit interior a gloomy look. [Webmasters note: The original beautiful stone roof was reconstructed in 1999, and can be seen in the pictures.]
In exterior decoration the main emphasis is laid on the western side where the entrance to the building is. Framed in two rows of trefoils and an inscription, the semi-circular tympanum of the door is filled with an ornament and with a representation of the Holy Virgin seated on a rug with the Child and flanked by two saints. The ornament is composed of large letters ingeniously interlaced by shoots with leaves and flowers. The posture of the Holy Virgin, sitting in the Oriental way, the figure of the Child, the expression of their faces are most characteristic. The pattern of the rug with drooping tassels is quite interesting. It should be noted that in Syunik temples of the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries the
cult of the Holy Virgin was widely spread. She was depicted in relief, and many churches were dedicated to her.The pointed tympanum of the twin window over the door is decorated with a unique relief representation of the large-headed Father blessing the Crucifix with his right hand and holding in his left hand the head of Adam, with a dove — the Holy Spirit — above it. In the right corner of the tympanum there is a seraph dove; the space between it and the figure of the Father is filled with an inscription balancing the composition of the scene of crucifixion. The relief is centered on the face of the Father. It is static, and the large almond-shaped eyes of the Father look far ahead. The figures are executed in high relief, and the inscriptions are depressed into the surface of the tympanum. The whole composition is well balanced.
The reliefs of both tympanums are distinguished by monumentality and completeness. As distinct from similar reliefs on the portals of the churches of Astvatsatsin in Areni and in Vernashen, the reliefs of Noravank's vestry fill the whole of the tympanums the framings of which are compositionally linked up with the appearance of the entire building.
Astvatsatsin church, known as Burtelashen after the name of its founder. Burtel Orbelian, is situated to the south-east of and at an angle to St. Karapet church and its gavit. Completed in 1339, it was Momik’s last work. Near the church there is his tomb khachkar, small and modestly decorated, dated the same year.
Burtelashen is a highly artistic monument reproducing — just as Astvatsatsin church of 1321—1328 in Egvard but in a more developed form — the type of the "Shepherd's" church in Ani reminiscent of the tower-like burial structures of the first years of Christianity in Armenia. Burtelashen is a memorial church. Its ground storey, rectangular in the plan, was a family burial vault, and the first storey, cross-shaped in the plan, was a memorial temple crowned, instead of a dome, with a many-column rotunda just as the churches in Egvard, Kaputan and Khorakert and as the bell-towers in Nor-Ghetik.
Burtelashen temple is the architectural dominant of Noravank ensemble. An original three-tier composition of the building is based on the increasing height of the tiers and the combination of the heavy bottom with the divided middle and the openwork top. Accordingly, decoration is more modest at the bottom and richer at the top. Employed here as elements of interior decoration are columns, small arches, profiled braces forming crosses of various shapes, medallions, window and door platbands.
The western portal is decorated with special splendor. An important role in its decoration is played by cantilever stairs leading to the first storey across the ground-storey portal, with profiled butts of the steps. The doors are framed in broad rectangular platbands, with ledges in the upper part, with columns, fillets and strips of various, mostly geometrical, fine and intricate patterns. Between the outer plathand and the arched framing of the openings there are representations of doves and sirens with women’s crowned heads. Such heraldic reliefs were widely used in the fourteenth-century Armenian art and in earlier times in architecture, miniatures and works of applied art, on various vessels and bowls. The door tyrnpanums are decorated with high reliefs showing, in the ground storey, the Holy Virgin with the Child and Archangels Gabriel and Michael at her sides and, in the upper storey, a half-length representation of Christ and figures of the Apostles Peter and Paul. As distinct from the reliefs of Noravank's vestry, these ones are carved, just as in Astvatsatsin (Spitakavor) church, on a plain surface, which gives them greater independence. The figures are distinguished by plasticity of form, softness of modeling and accentuation of certain details of clothing.
A group of the founders of Burtelashen is depicted on three columns of the western part of its rotunda. The picture consisted of relief figures of the Holy Virgin with the Child, sitting on a throne, and two standing men in rich attires, one of them holding a model of the temple.
On the territory of the complex there have survived several khachkars of original designs. The most valuable of them all is a 1308 khachkar by Momik. Just as Nor-Ghetik’s khachkar by Pavgos, this one is covered by fine carving all over. Standing out against the carved background are a large cross over a shield-shaped rosette and salient eight-pointed stars vertically arranged on its sides. The top of the khachkar shows a Deesis scene framed in cinquefoil arches symbolizing a pergola as suggested by the background ornament of flowers, fruit and vine leaves.
Text and floorplan from "Architectural Ensembles of Armenia"
O. Khalpakhchian, published in Moscow by Iskusstvo Publishers in 1980.
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NORAVANK
PLAN
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| Copyright © 1999 Raffi Kojian n_w$$h |
