SANAHIN MONASTERY AND BRIDGE

The site on which the monastery stands has a long tradition of spirituality, as it was occupied by Armenian monks driven out of Byzantine territories (they are said to have built the first church, that of Sourp Asdvadzadzin, when Queen Khosrovanouch, wife of Bagratid king Ashot III, the prestigious ruler of the kingdom of Ani, founded the monastery there in 966). The main church of the Holy Saviour (Amenaparkitch) was supplemented from the 10th to the 13th century by several equally elegant buildings, which form an imposing ensemble, both compact and harmonious. Like so many other monasteries in the region, Sanahin was a centre of cultural influence, housing in the 10th and 11th centuries a higher school and a scriptorium where copyists worked, illuminating the manuscripts in the semi-darkness of the candle-lit rooms. The proximity of Georgia, which led to a rebirth of Armenian sovereignty, prevented Sanahin from the decline of so many Armenian monasteries at the time of the great invasions: the monastery, which belonged to the Kiurikian lords until the 12th century, would later become the property of the Zakarid princes, of whom it would be designated as their pantheon; their descendants, the Arghoutians, rare representatives of an Armenian nobility decimated by the invasions, both Turkish and Mongolian, will be the lords of the estate, which, like the neighbouring monastery of Haghbad, prides itself on having welcomed the great 18th century Armenian musician Sayan Nova, and will remain so at least until the beginning of the 20th century.

The ensemble is dominated by the conical dome of the Church of St Saviour, a building of large grey stones whose chevet is traversed by an elegant arcature, surmounted by a central window, also arched, in accordance with the principles of the school of Ani. At the top of the façade, the founder's sons, Princes Smbat and Gurguen, future kings of Armenia and Tashir, are carved in bas-relief in a niche, holding the model of the church in their hands. The church is separated from the smaller church of the Mother of God by an elegant gallery with a barrel vault, known as the "Academy of Grigor Magistros".

At the other end of what could be called an inner courtyard, the chapel of Saint-Grégoire (Sourp Grigor), is a small two-storey rotunda with a pointed roof, the first level of which has kept the traces of the arcature that used to run through it. It adjoins the massive library, erected by Queen Hranouch of Tashir in 1063: it is a square building, topped by a polygonal drum, whose interior space is organized around the shelves made in the massive walls of the building, supported by half-columns chiselled with reptiles and birds.

Of course, the books were not kept within these walls; to protect them from invaders, the monks, like those of Gochavank Monastery, had taken the habit of storing them in hollows made in the walls of the Debet River gorge.

The front part (west façade) is composed of two jamatoun or narthex. The one preceding the small church of St. Saviour is particularly original: it is a large hall with three naves, topped by three sloping gabled roofs whose gables cap an arcaded gallery supported by eight short, massive columns, a construction without equivalent in Armenia. At each end are two beautiful 13th-century khatchkars.

An equally original campanile adjoining the previous building completes the ensemble. Erected in 1236, this three-storey tower topped by a small lantern is the first known specimen of an Armenian bell tower; its walls are pierced with pointed windows, and its main façade is decorated with a large red tufa cross that stands out against the grey basalt of the building.

In the cemetery, to the south-east, there are two funeral chapels: the two-storey mausoleum of the Zakarid princes (1189) and the chapel of the Holy Resurrection (Sourp Harutyun) containing khatchkar and surrounded by these stelae, the most remarkable of which, due to the vardapet Grigor (1184), is a finely chiselled pink tufa stone, set on a grey basalt base.

Convent buildings. The monastery had many monastery buildings, including a guesthouse, of which only some elements remain standing. On the hillside, still on the outskirts of the monastery, there is a large grey stone building with a gable roof topped by a double arch supported by a stocky pillar; it is a fountain dating from the same period, still in use, which collects the waters that flow from the surrounding mountains.

Sanahin Bridge (Sanahini Kamourdj). The village and the monastery of Sanahin can be reached from the bottom of the valley, in Alaverdi, through a beautiful medieval bridge. Built in 1192, this powerful 17.5-metre, single arch, black basalt bridge, which spans the tumultuous course of the Debet River, opens the "royal road" for visiting the monastery, with its lions, emblems of the local princes, represented in bas-reliefs on its pillars. It is true that one must then take the trouble to climb the rather steep slope that leads to the top of the canyon, on the plateau where the monastic complex extends