Haghartsin Monastery

Haghartsin sits in a forested side valley above the town of Dilijan in northern Armenia, its stone churches set among old trees. It is a medieval monastic complex of three churches, a gavit (narthex) and a refectory, built between the 10th and 13th centuries, and it shows Armenian church architecture of that period in a remarkably compact and complete form. Popular etymology derives its name from Armenian words for an eagle at play, and a stream of the same name flows past the walls into the Aghstev.

The monastery is thought to date from the 10th century, and a ruined royal sepulchre beside St Gregory's Church is believed to hold kings of the Kiurikian branch of the Bagratuni dynasty; another view holds that Bagratuni kings Smbat II and Gagik I lie here. Largely destroyed by the Seljuks in the 11th century, Haghartsin revived from 1184 under the Zakarid princes Zakare and Ivane, who made it their family burial ground. After Zakare's death in 1213, Ivane recorded in an inscription that he had built a vaulted hall beside St Gregory's in his brother's memory. The abbot Khachatur of Taron, a renowned musician, made the monastery an important school of church music.

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. The small St Stephen's Church dates from 1244, and the refectory, built by the architect Minas in 1248, is divided into two vaulted bays by intersecting arches. Local legend holds that a hollow half-column in the gavit once swung open to hide the monastery's treasures from invaders.

Getting there

Haghartsin lies about 7 km from Dilijan in Tavush Province, reached by a paved road up the valley. Dilijan itself is a long-established mountain resort set within Dilijan National Park. Zvartnots International Airport (EVN) near Yerevan is about 84 km away in a straight line.