HARITCHAVANK MONASTERY

It is in a majestic site dominated by the Arakadz that the monastery of Haritch is revealed, in the village of the same name, spreading its humble cubic houses, mostly farms, on a spur leaning against the mountainside. A visit to Haritchavank Monastery is also an exploration of deep, rural Armenia, where the arrival of a foreigner is always perceived as an event, arousing the curiosity of children who have plenty of time to look at you in detail, as the monastery is located at the end of a chaotic and dusty, sometimes muddy alleyway running through the village.
Surrounded by convent buildings dating from ^{XIXe siècle}, recently restored and housing a museum that tells the history of the locality, proud to be one of the oldest inhabited sites in the country, the monastery consists of two churches, a jamatoun and several chapels. The complex, whose construction, ordered by the Zakarid princes, dates back to ^{XIIIe siècle}, will not leave the visitor indifferent. Both the design and the carved decoration are indeed of great originality and bear the influence of Persian and Turkish Seljuk, but also Georgian arts. Of particular note is the small church of St. Gregory (Sourp Krikor), preceded by a porch-bell tower supported by a pair of large columns, an addition to ^{XIXe siècle}; the two small chapels adjoining it are much older, as is the tiny isolated chapel built on a rocky outcrop overlooking the torrent which, flowing down the slopes of the Arakadz, flows at the foot of the monastery. Next to it, a vast square building, the jamatoun, built in 1224, shows a porch decorated with twisted columns and a tympanum decorated with a very oriental marquetry of red and black stones. Behind the narthex, the main church, Sainte-Mère-de-Dieu (Sourp Asdvadzadzine), which dates from 1201, is also richly decorated, both on the outside, as can be seen on its twelve-faceted dome, and on the inside, where a rain of stalactites cuts the walls of the building. On one of the outer walls, in a niche, are depicted in profile the building's sponsors, Princes Zakaré and Ivané, in turban and caftan. On one gable is a model of the church, an architectural custom to which Armenian builders were happy to conform. They engraved another message on it: "Lord God, have mercy on the workers, Amen. »