The Most Beautiful Monasteries in Armenia
6 places · updated 13 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful monasteries in Armenia are Khor Virap, Haghpat Monastery and Sevanavank. The list covers 6 monasteries. Last updated 13 October 2026.
Armenia adopted Christianity as its state religion in the early fourth century, and its monasteries are the clearest expression of that long tradition. Built of local tuff and basalt, they follow a distinctive architecture of compact domed churches with conical roofs, broad vestibules and carved cross-stones, or khachkars. Just as distinctive are their settings: monks chose gorges, lake shores and plateau edges, so that each monastery is part of the landscape around it.
Khor Virap stands on a hill on the Ararat plain, facing the great snow-capped mass of Mount Ararat; it is built over the pit where Gregory the Illuminator is said to have been imprisoned before converting the Armenian king. Sevanavank, founded in the ninth century, sits on a peninsula in Lake Sevan, its dark stone churches set against the blue of the high mountain lake. Haghpat in the northern province of Lori, with its neighbour Sanahin, is a World Heritage Site and a masterpiece of medieval Armenian architecture, rich in khachkars.
In the south, Tatev perches on the edge of a basalt plateau above the deep Vorotan gorge, and was once one of the great centres of medieval learning in Armenia. Noravank, at the head of a narrow gorge of red cliffs, is known for its two-storey church of the Holy Mother of God, attributed to the architect and sculptor Momik. And Haghartsin, in the forested hills near Dilijan, groups several churches and a refectory in a quiet wooded valley.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Khor Virap | Monastery | |
| 2 | Haghpat Monastery | Monastery | ✓ |
| 3 | Sevanavank | Monastery | |
| 4 | Tatev Monastery | Monastery | |
| 5 | Noravank | Monastery | |
| 6 | Haghartsin Monastery | Monastery |
01 Khor Virap
Armenia · 8.7 km from Artashat39.878° N 44.576° E
Image by Taken from Pixabay A first chapel was built on the site in 642 by Catholicos Nerses III, known as the Builder. The larger church of the Holy Mother of God, Surb Astvatsatsin, went up in 1662 around the remains of the older chapel, and the whole complex is enclosed by walls. It remains one of Armenia's most visited pilgrimage places, used for baptisms, weddings and the traditional matagh sacrifice, and the low walls around it are the favourite place to photograph Ararat, especially early in the morning.
Did you know? Before any church stood here, the hill served as a royal prison of Artashat, the capital founded by King Artashes I around 180 BC.
02 Haghpat Monastery
Armenia · 36.4 km from Vanadzor41.094° N 44.712° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by Makalu from Pixabay The complex has survived a great deal. An earthquake around 1130 left parts of it in ruins for half a century, armies passed through repeatedly, and another major earthquake in 1988 caused further damage, yet the buildings stand today largely as their builders left them. Walk to the edge of the grounds for the view across the gorge to the ridges on the far side, which explains better than any plaque why the site was chosen.
Did you know? The monastery's scriptorium worked from the tenth to the thirteenth century, and its surviving illuminated manuscripts are now scattered from Yerevan to Venice, Jerusalem and Vienna.
03 Sevanavank
Armenia · 24.8 km from Gavar40.564° N 45.011° E
Image by Taken from Pixabay When the monastery was built, it stood on the only large island in the lake. From the 1930s, Soviet water projects drew so much water from Sevan for irrigation and hydropower that the level fell by about 20 metres, and the island became joined to the shore as a peninsula. The monastery is again an active religious site, and a seminary, the Vaskenian Theological Academy, occupies newer buildings on the northern side of the peninsula.
Did you know? The monastery is also known as Mariamashen, meaning built by Mariam, after its royal founder.
04 Tatev Monastery
Armenia · 24.3 km from Kapan39.379° N 46.250° E
Alexander Naumov · CC BY 3.0 Tatev's heyday came between 1390 and 1434, when it was home to a university, one of the leading centres of learning in medieval Armenia. Under Hovhan Vorotnetsi and then his pupil Grigor Tatevatsi, monks studied scripture, philosophy, manuscript illumination and music here. An earthquake in 1931 brought down the dome of the main church and the bell tower; the complex has been restored since. 7 km across the Vorotan gorge that set a Guinness record as the longest non-stop double-track cableway; the cabin passes some 320 m above the river, and the view of the monastery on its ledge during the approach is the finest there is.
Did you know? When Seljuk Turks plundered Tatev in 1170, some 10,000 manuscripts are said to have been burned.
05 Noravank
Armenia · 12.1 km from Yeghegnadzor39.685° N 45.233° E
Image by Nick115 from Pixabay The crowning work is Surb Astvatsatsin, the Holy Mother of God, also called Burtelashen after Prince Burtel Orbelian, who paid for it. Completed in 1339 to Momik's design, it was his last work, and his modest khachkar stands nearby. The ground floor was a family burial vault; above it a cross-shaped memorial church is crowned by a columned rotunda, rebuilt in 1997. Reliefs over the doors show the Virgin and Child between the archangels Gabriel and Michael and, higher up, Christ with Peter and Paul. Momik's khachkar of 1308, topped by a carved Deesis, is the finest of the site's cross-stones. The gorge is also an Important Bird Area, home to bezoar goats and bearded vultures.
Did you know? The gavit's stone ceiling rises in four rows of stalactite-like brackets toward a single square opening that lets in light from above.
06 Haghartsin Monastery
Armenia · 23.3 km from Ijevan40.802° N 44.891° E
Image by Makalu from Pixabay St Astvatsatsin (the Holy Mother of God), completed in 1281, is the largest church and the artistic centre of the ensemble. Its sixteen-sided drum is wrapped in a blind arcade that makes the dome seem to float, and the east facade carries a relief of two monks presenting a model of the church beneath a dove — probably the founders, showing the dome as it originally looked. A finely carved 13th-century khachkar by a master named Poghos stands by its south door. St Gregory's, the oldest of the churches, is entered through a broad 12th-century gavit whose roof rises in squat octagonal tents.
Did you know? An inscription dated 1184 on the west facade of St Gregory's records the church's rebuilding after its destruction by the Seljuks.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful monasteries in Armenia?
- On our list, Khor Virap ranks first, followed by Haghpat Monastery and Sevanavank.
- Why does Armenia have so many monasteries?
- Armenia became the first country to adopt Christianity as a state religion, in the early fourth century, and monasteries were for centuries its main centres of learning, manuscript copying and art.
- What is a khachkar?
- A khachkar is an Armenian carved stone stele with a cross at its centre, usually surrounded by intricate interlaced ornament. Armenian cross-stone art is on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage.
- Which Armenian monastery has the best view of Mount Ararat?
- Khor Virap, on a hill in the Ararat plain, is the monastery most closely associated with views of Mount Ararat.
- How many monasteries are on this list in Armenia?
- The list covers 6 monasteries.