The “Kotrats Yeghtsi” Church of Tonashen

The “Kotrats Yeghtsi” Church of Tonashen

Location

The monument known as Kotrats Yeghtsi is located 3 km north-west of the village of Tonashen, in the Martakert District of Artsakh, in a forested area known as Ttot (Figs. 1, 2), where traces of an old rural settlement are also visible (certificate of the Ministry of Science, Education, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Artsakh). Several old rural settlements are located in the vicinity of Tonashen, including Yeghaker, Pokr Ttut, Kotrats Yeghtsi, and others (Balayan 2020, 396).

 

Fig. 1. The general view of the ruins of the church. Photo by G. Sargsyan.

Fig. 2. The general view of the ruins of the church. Photo by G. Sargsyan.

Historical overview

No historical information about the church has been preserved. Its name, Kotrats Yeghtsi (“Ruined Church”), derives from its partially destroyed and ruined condition.

Architectural and compositional description

The church has survived in a partially ruined condition and is covered with dense vegetation. Its walls are preserved to heights ranging from 1 to 6 m. Judging from the surviving remains, the church was built of small and medium-sized, semi-dressed and roughly hewn porous limestone, bonded with lime mortar (Figs. 3, 4). The edge stones of the engaged arches are semi-dressed, while the transverse vault-supporting arches are constructed of finely dressed stone.

Early khachkars are incorporated into the masonry of the church walls (Figs. 5, 6). One of them, dating to the 11th century (Fig. 5), was reused as the lintel of the church’s sole entrance, located on the southern side.

The northern wall is comparatively well preserved. On the interior, it is articulated by vault-supporting wall arches, confirming that a masonry semicylindrical barrel vault originally covered the church. The structure must therefore have been a single-nave vaulted hall, in which the weight of the vault was carried by paired wall arches along the northern and now-lost southern walls, together with transverse supporting arches rising above the points where they met (Figs. 7, 8). This structural system makes a 12th–13th-century date for the construction of the church highly probable.

 

Fig. 3. The apse of the church. Photo by G. Sargsyan.

Fig. 6. A khachkar inside the church. Photo by G. Sargsyan.

Fig. 4. The apse and sacristy of the church. Photo by G. Sargsyan.

Fig. 7. The arcade of the northern wall of the church. Photo by G. Sargsyan.

Fig. 5. The lintel of the southern entrance. Photo by G. Sargsyan.

Fig. 8. The arcade of the northern wall of the church. Photo by G. Sargsyan.

Near the apse, the remains of a sacristy can still be discerned, although they are in a severely ruined condition.

Judging from the appearance of the northern façade, the church interior was once plastered. A baptismal font, formed as a simple niche, is preserved on the interior side of the northern wall. Simple rectangular niches are also present elsewhere in the building. The only surviving window is located in the partially ruined western façade and is rectangular in form on the interior (Fig. 9).

Fig. 9. The surviving window of the church. Photo by G. Sargsyan.

The Condition before and after the war

The church is in a semi-ruined condition. Only archaeological investigation, together with the clearance of dense vegetation and the trees growing directly on the monument, would make it possible to obtain a more complete understanding of the church and its architectural form. Fragments of common pottery are also present in the area.

Bibliography

  1. Balayan 2020 - Balayan V., Historical Outlines of the Settlements of the Republic of Artsakh, Yerevan.
  2. Kotrats Yeghtsi - Certificate of the Ministry of Science, Education, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Artsakh.
The “Kotrats Yeghtsi” Church of Tonashen
The “Kotrats Yeghtsi” Church of Tonashen
The “Kotrats Yeghtsi” Church of Tonashen
Artsakh