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SACRED ARCHITECTURE


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SACRED ARCHITECTURE

 

We wasted so much precious capital, be they financial, political and EMOTIONAL talking about a “church” in a neighboring hostile country. With this post my wish is to begin a topic to,list all the Sacred Sites in Armenia. WE may have spoken about many of them in a variety of topics, it may be suitable to collect them all under a specific Topic.

Let us begin at top, and go as far down as Tetev in the south and east and west.. Please add as you see fit.

AKHTALA

Did you know where and what it is? I did not. I have no idea when and why the village was named so.

See Akhtala here, notheast of Alaverdi;

http://www.armsite.com/maps/mshow.phtml?when=now&slide=2

 

http://www.armeniapedia.org/images/1/13/Akhtala_monastery_P1001843.jpg

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Armenia_location_map.svg

http://www.panorama.am/g_image.php?id=115316&t=b

http://www.panorama.am/en/society/2010/09/18/lori-axtala/

15:17 18/09/2010 » Society

Akhtala Church to be re-anointed, re-opened September 19

Lori province of Armenia will host the re-anointment and re-opening ceremony of St. Astvatsatsin (Holy Virgin) Church of Akhtala September 19.

The re-anointment ceremony will be followed by a holy liturgy and blessing of oblation. The offering will be given to people later.

“Kings, queens and princes” information panels will open in the territory of Akhtala Monastery. The panels provide information about the castles, palaces and monasteries once built by the Zakarids.

The presentation of the book “Akhtala”, presenting the history of Akhtala, will take place tomorrow.

The range of festive events include the opening of “Wedding Rings” monument, as well as Barbeque Feast, accompanied by Armenian national dance and songs.

Akhtala Monastery dates back to late 10th century. The Monastery consists of a fortress, three churches, a chapel, a hall. The church is known for its rich frescos, murals.

 

http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Akhtala_Monastery

Edited by Arpa
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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Armenia_Haghbat.jpg

 

 

ՀԱՂՊԱՏԱՎԱՆՔ also known as ՀԱՂՊԱՏ

 

To the southwest of Akhtala is another gem of Sacred Armenian Architecture, the Monaatery of Hagpat ՀԱՂՊԱՏԱՎԱՆՔ also known as ՀԱՂՊԱՏ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haghpat_Monastery

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Map_of_Haghpat.gif

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Note; The debacle of to cross or not to cross at Aghtamar, see how many crosses there in the above picture.

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Մովսես ջան, եթէ ուշադիր նայես, աջ խորապատկերոմ կանգնած պատի քարերի գույնը մաշվելով նույնացվել են մուտքի գորշ գույնի հետ: Հենց սրա համար ել անհավասարության տպավորութիւն է ստեղցում:
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http://www.armenianow.com/sites/default/files/img/imagecache/600x400/akhtala.jpg

 

http://www.armenianow.com/arts_and_culture/24857/akhtala_church_reconsecration_amap_vivacellmts

Arts and Culture | 23.09.10 | 13:12

Akhtala Church Controversy: Announced re-consecration of Holy Virgin delayed

 

NAZIK ARMENAKYAN

ArmeniaNow

St. Astvatsatsin Church, Akhtala, Lori province

By Gayane Mkrtchyan

ArmeniaNow reporter

A medieval church in northern Armenia set for re-consecration last Sunday is still awaiting the sacred ceremony after clergy unexpectedly decided to delay it.

A church official said the delay of the widely advertised event was due to the absence of the supreme patriarch from the country and that they wished to hold the ceremony only in his presence.

Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin Information System Director Fr. Vahram Melikyan also denied talk that such a development might have been caused by reaction from clergy in Georgia where many, as it appears, believe the church is a Georgian one. The 13th-century Surb Astvatsatsin (Holy Virgin) Church in the small industrial town of Akhtala, which is near the border with Georgia, had not functioned for nearly two centuries. Religious rituals resumed there only after it got an appointed pastor in January. But like its counterpart on the Lake Van island of Akhtamar, across what is now the Turkish-Armenian border, Holy Virgin, too, remains without a cross. Its dome is also damaged. (The row over the absence of this Christian symbol on the dome of the Turkish-renovated Armenian Surb Khach Church at Akhtamar marred what had been planned by Turkey as a huge display of tolerance towards its Armenian Christian minority during the one-off mass last Sunday.) Besides the re-consecration of the church, the scheduled events in Akhtala for September 19 included the unveiling of a Wedding Band sculpture and the installation of information panels outside the church, placed by the Armenian Monuments Awareness Project. The day’s festivities were supposed to end in a Barbecue Contest and award for the best barbecue (pork, veal, beef, etc). All the ancillary events completed, the expected re-consecration and a liturgy did not happen. The town’s authorities failed to provide any explanations as to why the event did not happen. Fr. Vahram told ArmeniaNow that the re-consecration of the Church did not take place because His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, was outside the country. “We wished to perform the re-consecration of the Holy Virgin Church not in the absence of the Catholicos, but in his presence,” said the priest. “I think it will happen in the very near future.” Reacting to the common talk that the Holy Virgin Church is a Georgian church and that its re-consecration was not done under pressure from the Georgian side, Fr. Vahram said: “The church is Armenian and this is just idle talk.” Before the Akhtala church began to perform religious rites again, people in the town of some 3,000 would go to nearby towns and villages to have church weddings or baptism ceremonies there. The Holy Virgin church’s pastor Fr. Vigen says that the dome is damaged and that’s why it has no cross. The dome of the church was destroyed in an earthquake in the Middle Ages. “We have no surviving sketches to see what kind it was,” says Fr. Vigen. “But we do have preserved stone pieces, from which architects are now trying to project how the dome would have looked. I cannot say when the construction work will start, because it requires great expenditures.” The rest of the Sunday events went on according to plan. A Wedding Band sculpture was unveiled in Akhtala and information panels were installed presenting the history and structure fortress of Akhtala, with its monastery complex consisting of three churches, a belfry, the hall and stone service rooms, and the rich medieval frescoes found inside the main church St. Astvatsatsin (Holy Virgin). Celebrations in Akhtala ended in a barbecue contest, in which about 20 chefs as well as representatives of Armenia’s ethnic minorities took part. Residents of different villages also participated in the contest by making barbecue and treating guests. Akhtala, a birthplace of copper, silver and gold, had mostly Greek miners working and eventually settling in the area, creating once a wide Greek community. The mines were operated by French industrialists. So Akhtala was virtually a place with multicultural environment. It was symbolic that the representatives of ethnic minorities living in the region today participated in the event by presenting an ethnic dance or song. Chairman of the “Development and Preservation of Armenian Culinary Traditions” NGO and Chef at Ararat Hall Restaurant Sedrak Mamulyan, who heads the Contest Committee, says that participants were awarded in eight categories. The Jewish community was recognized as winner in the contest of representatives of Armenia’s Jewish, Greek and Ukrainian communities. A few hundred guests turned out in anticipation of the significant event. According to some of them, the event was overall very poorly organized. “An organizational committee for holding the contest had been set up at the Ministry of Economy. And next year organizational problems will be solved at a higher level, there will also be participants from abroad, and most importantly, the contest will have an international nature,” says Mamulyan.

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