“Tsmaka Anapat” Monastery of Yeghegnut

“Tsmaka Anapat” Monastery of Yeghegnut

Location

The monastery is located 2.4 km north-west of Yeghegnut village of Nor Shahumyan (Karvatchar) region of the Artsakh Republic, in a forested and damp gorge of a tributary joining the Lev River to the right. Tsmaka Anapat Monastery is located at an altitude of 1.660 meters above sea level (Karapetyan 2019, 248). Presently it is under the Azerbaijani occupation.

Historical overview

According to monument expert Samvel Karapetyan, the ruins of the monastery near Yeghegnut village belong to Tsmaka Anapat (in Arm.: hermitage of deepwoods) mentioned by Catholicos Philippos in a kondak publicized in 1647 and which for a long time had an uncertain location (Karapetyan 2019, 248).

Architectural-compositional description

The monastery consists of a sole single nave vaulted church standing almost only in the northern half and a simple-plan narthex attached to it from the west (Fig. 1). The entrance to the narthex is from the south and to the church from the west (Fig. 2).

The church has one vestry with rectangular plan on both sides of the semicircular altar (Fig. 3) (Karapetyan 2019, 249-250).

Both the church and the chapel are built of rough stones and lime mortar (Figs. 4, 5). The church used to be internally plastered.

Fig. 1 The plan of the monastery, S. Karapetyan, Mravakank, Yerevan, 2019, p. 249.

Fig. 2 The entrance to the narthex, photo by the Database of the Department of Preservation of Monuments of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Artsakh Republic.

Fig. 4 The exterior and interior walls of the church, photo by the Database of the Department of Preservation of Monuments of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Artsakh Republic.

Fig. 3 The church altar and one of the vestries, photo by the Database of the Department of Preservation of Monuments of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Artsakh Republic.

Fig. 5 The exterior and interior walls of the church, photo by the Database of the Department of Preservation of Monuments of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Artsakh Republic.

The condition before and after the war

The church was not damaged during the Artsakh wars.

There is no information about the monument after Karvatchar region came under the Azerbaijani control.

Bibliography

  1. Karapetyan 2019 – Karapetyan S., Mravakank, Yerevan.
“Tsmaka Anapat” Monastery of Yeghegnut
“Tsmaka Anapat” Monastery of Yeghegnut
“Tsmaka Anapat” Monastery of Yeghegnut
Artsakh