Lmbatavank

🔍 Research history

The church is mentioned in the works dedicated to the early medieval Armenian architecture and mural painting.

🧱 Archaeological description

Stratigraphy
Surrounding cleaning works were organized in 1953-1955. Excavations were made around the church in 1954. The architectural fragments found in the 1 m wide and 1.2 m deep cleared area, the roof tiles were used in the renovation. The exposed ground anchors, the facing walls of the facades, the cornices, the entire dome, the roofs of the lower slopes and the porch, on the inside, the facing wall of the western masonry with the spire and the 2 stones of the arch were repaired. The walls of the later-attached clapboard structure on the north-western side were raised with a row, a rectangular window was installed, the roof was covered with a temporary tin roof and painted in an appropriate color. The structure was damaged by the 1926 and 1988 earthquakes. Restoration works were carried out in 1989, and as a result during the church was found to be also renovated in the XII-XIII centuries. The murals were repaired in the 1970s. A. Zaryan and K. Lamoure performed cleaning, fixing, conservation restoration works of a series of frescoes in 2013-2016. The soot and paraffin accumulated on the internal walls and plaster were cleaned, the walls were fixed in 2014-2017.

Architecture
It belongs to the single central domed church type with outwardly rectangular cross wings (small, central dome is a church with a cross plan). It is built of Artik pink and yellow-red massive tuff. Initially, the roof was covered with tiles, later it was replaced with slabs. It has 7 windows: 4 on the drum, 1 each on the southern, western, eastern wall (opened later damaging the mural). The only entrance is from the western side, off-axis to the north. It has retained its original composition, although it has undergone many renovations over the centuries, with the addition of outbuildings to the western wall. The marks of stone masons have been preserved.

🌍 Significance

It is one of the unique early medieval monuments with valuable frescoes preserved inside (St. Astvatsatsin of Karmravor, St. Hovhannes of Mastara, St. Gregory the Illuminator Aruch, St. Stepanos of Kosh, etc.). The Upper Tabernacle depicts the Ascension, “Christ in Glory” and images of the apostles, combined with depictions of the Theophanies of the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah. There are holy horsemen depicted on the wall of the north-western and south-eastern cruciform, next to the altare: St. Sargis (or St. Theodoros) and St. Gevorg with a cross-scepter in his hands. It is noteworthy that together with the pigments they used metal particles that shine in the light (Zaryan, Lamoureux, 2019). The replicas of the murals, now kept in the mural hall of the National Gallery of Armenia, were made in 1953 under the leadership an art critic, restorer-painter, L. Durnovo. Ornamental sculptures characteristic of the same period have also been preserved inside the church. The high sculptural cross (1.2 m) on the western transept is exceptional. Bas-reliefs of an isosceles cross, dated to the early ages (V-VI), placed in a round frame, have been preserved. Most likely, the church was built on the site of another building or next to it (V. Grigoryan, A. Ghazaryan). The northern and southern rectangular cross-arms have a unique solution in Armenia, which are not covered with vaults, but with domes.

📜 Traditional legends 

A prince calls a master to build the monastery of Sanahin. A father and a son arrive and begin to build, but while working, an argument breaks out between the father, the son and the assistant. As a result, the son gets angry with his father and leaves the construction site. The son goes to build a monastery for another prince. When the walls of the new monastery are raised, they notice from Sanahin that some structure is rising in front of it. The workers report it to their master. On Sunday, when everyone was resting, the master father comes to his son, approaches the walls of the half-built monastery and takes a long look. Everyone is looking forward to the master’s assessment. Putting his foot on one of the monastery walls, the father says: “Hakh wall” (meaning it is a real strong wall). Saying this, the master embraces his son and reconciles with him. The monastery is named HAGHPAT since that day.

📚 Sources

Literature

1. Yeghiazaryan H. 1960, Lmbatavank and its petroglyphs, Etchmiadzin, N 2, pp. 50-57.
2. Grigoryan V. 1982, Early Medieval Central Dome Small Monuments of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenian SSR Academy of Sciences ed., 187 pages.
3. Tamanyan Yu. 1988, New life for monuments, Yerevan, Hayastan ed., 208 pages.
4. Zaryan A., Lamoure K. 2019, Restoration of frescoes in a number of early Christian Armenian churches, Yerevan, “Tigran Mets” ed., 329 pages.
5. Kazaryan A. 2012, Church architecture of the Transcaucasian countries of the 7th century: the formation and development of traditions, Volume III, Moscow: Locus Standi, 692 p.

List of monuments
Shirak 7.2.1

📷 Gallery

Floor plan – Cuneo P. 1988, Armenian architecture from the fourth to the nineteenth century, T. 1, De Luca Editore, p. 254.