Noravank โ€” monastery
Image by Nick115 from Pixabay

Noravank

  • 2 min read
  • 39.685ยฐ N 45.233ยฐ E

Interesting facts

  • The tombstone of Prince Elikum Orbelian, dated 1300, shows a man with a lion's paws and tail, a tribute to his courage in battle.
  • Stepanos Orbelian, metropolitan of Syunik, completed his History of the Province of Syunik at Noravank in 1299, a key source on medieval Armenia.
  • The gavit's stone ceiling rises in four rows of stalactite-like brackets toward a single square opening that lets in light from above.
  • On Burtelashen's west portal, carved doves alternate with sirens, birds bearing crowned women's heads, a motif common in 14th-century Armenian art.
  • Three columns of the rotunda once carried a relief of the church's founders, one of them holding a model of the building.
  • The columned drum of Surb Astvatsatsin rebuilt in 1997 was based on surviving fragments, and some scholars regard the reconstruction as largely conjectural.
  • After 1105 the monastery grew wealthy enough to own two fortresses, Anapat and Hraseka, together with twelve farms.
  • Momik, the master of Noravank, also built the church of St Astvatsatsin in nearby Areni in 1321.
  • The defensive walls that now enclose the complex are much later than its churches, dating from the 17th and 18th centuries.
  • The gorge lies within a Prime Butterfly Area and is home to the rare Alexanor swallowtail.

Why it is worth it

Noravank stands at the head of a narrow gorge cut by the Amaghu River in southern Armenia, facing sheer cliffs of brick-red rock. Against that backdrop its best-known building looks almost unreal: a tall two-storey church whose upper floor is reached only by narrow stone steps cantilevered out from the west faรงade.

The name means "new monastery". A church stood here before the 9th century, but the community took shape in 1105, when Bishop Hovhannes, a former abbot of Vahanavank, settled on the site. In the 13th and 14th centuries Noravank became the residence of the bishops of Syunik and the burial place of the Orbelian princes, and a centre of learning tied to the nearby University of Gladzor. Two masters shaped what survives: the architect Siranes, and Momik, a sculptor and manuscript painter active here in the late 13th and early 14th centuries.

The church of Surb Karapet (St John the Baptist) was built in 1216โ€“1227 at the wish of Prince Liparit Orbelian; an earthquake brought down its dome in 1340, and Siranes rebuilt it in 1361. Against its west side stands a gavit, or entrance hall, of 1261, later covered by a stone tent roof whose stepped ceiling imitates the timber roofs of Armenian village houses. Over the door a rare relief shows God the Father, bearded and large-eyed, holding the head of John the Baptist and blessing the Crucifix. The chapel of St Gregory, added by Siranes in 1275, shelters more Orbelian tombs, including a richly carved gravestone of 1300.

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.

Getting there

Noravank lies in Vayots Dzor Province near the town of Yeghegnadzor, about 122 km from Yerevan. The nearest town on the Armenian side is Ararat, about 50 km away, and the nearest Armenian airport is Zvartnots International Airport (EVN) near Yerevan, about 88 km away in a straight line.

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Armenia 13The Most Beautiful Monasteries in Armenia 6The Most Beautiful Sacred Places in Armenia 9The Most Beautiful Monasteries 79The Most Beautiful Sacred Places 623

From the encyclopaedia

Noravank is a 13th-century Armenian monastery, located 122ย km from Yerevan in a narrow gorge made by the Amaghu River, near the town of Yeghegnadzor in Armenia. The gorge is known for its tall, sheer, brick-red cliffs, directly across from the monastery. The monastery is best known for its two-storey Surb Astvatsatsin Church, which grants access to the second floor by way of a narrow stone-made staircase jutting out from the face of building.

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