HOLY-GAYAN CHURCH

Situated south-east of Etchmiadzine, in a green setting, on the site where Gayanée is said to have suffered martyrdom at the beginning of the 4th century, like Hripismée of whom she was the nurse, this church, built from 630 to 641, has kept only a few original elements. The crypt under its apse would correspond to the underground part of the saint's martyrdom, but the church owes its present appearance to the works carried out in 1652 by order of the Catholicos Philippos, whose three-arched porch-gallery is the originality of the building, whose interior is rather sober.