SPITAKAVOR HERMITAGE

Some 10 km north of Eghegnadzor, on the right-hand side of the road leading to the Selim Pass, the Hermitage of Spitakavor, located at 2,500 m on the grassy slopes of Mount Teksar, is one of the most prestigious sites in the region. The site, with its superb panoramic view of the mountains, lends itself effectively to eremitical life. The complex, named Spitakavor (white) because of its limestone construction, consists of a church (Sourp Asdvadzadzine) with a slender dome, preceded by a courtyard whose entrance porch serves as a bell tower. The church, whose tympanum is decorated with an expressive sculpture of the Virgin and Child, with religious and secular bas-reliefs decorating the façade and the interior space under the dome, is said to have been built by Prince Eatsi Prochian, and completed by his son Amir-Hasan II in 1321. It was the property of the great princely dynasty of the Prochians (to whom we owe in particular the monastery of Geghard) whose ruins of the fortresses (Prochabert), on the mountainside, attest to their past power. The hermitage housed a school of higher education in the 15th century.

Gladzor. In the vicinity of Spitakavor, a prestigious university also developed on the site of the monastery of T'anat. Looking at the desolate plateau on which this monastery stands (7 km east of Vernachen), it is hard to imagine that it was one of the main cultural centres of medieval Armenia. Yet it was on the slopes of this eroded mountainside that the prestigious University of Gladzor flourished, training generations of theologians, scholars and scientists from 1280 to the mid-14th century.

The main church of St. Stephen (Sourp Stepanos) is said to have been built in 1279, on the site of an older monastery where the bishop and martyr of Siunia, Stepanos, was buried in 735. It is topped by a high dome with an umbrella roof, and has carved decoration on its façades. The nearby Sourp Nchan (Holy Sign) Chapel has a bas-relief on its pediment, representing a horseman fighting a lion.

Arkaz. Visible from Gladzor, this monastery accessible by the Eghegnadzor road is famous for its Sourp Khatch (Holy Cross) church, mentioned in the 8th century, which is said to have housed the Holy Cross of Varag; repatriated from the monastery of Norvaragavank (North), the relic has come a long way from the original Vaspourakan! The monastery, restored in 2010, has become a place of pilgrimage, and the practice of madagh is common