DVIN RUINS

The remains of the city of Dvin are worth a short detour by following the course of the Azad River northeast from Artashat and the main road along the Arabian Sea. Founded by King Khosrov II (332-338), who wanted to transfer his capital from there to Artashat, Dvin has been the site of the Catholic siege since 461, when it temporarily left Echmiadzin. It was thus in Dvin that the famous council was held in the year 552, which was to challenge the terms of the Council of Chalcedon of 451 and affirm the independence of the Armenian Church. This double vocation, both religious and political, will designate Dvin as one of the main cities of the region, which will earn it the covetousness of the Arabs, who made it the capital of the province of Arminiya. Seat of an emirate, it then had 100,000 inhabitants and resisted the efforts of the Armenian Bagratid kings to re-conquer it. But the new capital of the Bagratides, Ani, overshadowed it in the 10th century, and the Mongol invasion of 1236 sounded the death knell for Dvin. Of this great city, which was one of the main centres of craftsmanship and trade in medieval Armenia, there remain, on a mound, the remains of the citadel containing a vast palace; the city spread out at the foot of this hill, beyond the walls protected by a moat. To the south-west, inside the ramparts, in the central district, stood several monuments, including the great cathedral and the palace of the Catholicos, destroyed by the earthquake of 893.

The ruins of the cathedral, which followed the original basilica plan of the first churches in Armenia, bear witness to the impressive dimensions of the building, whose construction was completed in 485. It was completed in 485 and its three naves, separated by a double row of seven pillars, make it the largest church in Armenia. On the foundations of the building destroyed by the Persians in 572, a new cathedral was built between 607 and 628. From the first temple, it retains the length, but it was topped by the drum now characteristic of Armenian churches, the dome resting on four pillars. Little has been preserved of its decoration, which is known to have included mosaics.

The foundations of the Catholicossal palace, north of the cathedral, identified a large building articulated around a hall with four pairs of columns obeying the basilical plan. The columns, like the roof, were made of wood, crowned with large stone capitals, the remains of which give an idea of the sculpted decoration, largely based on plant motifs.