Qarashen Village’s Tadeos Bridge

Qarashen Village’s Tadeos Bridge

Location

Tadeos Bridge is situated on the Karkar River, about 600 meters southwest of the village of Qarashen (Dashushen), in the Askeran region (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1 The general view of the bridge, 2021, photo by A. Grigoryan.

Historical overview

The bridge is known as Tadeos by the locals, who claim that Tadevos Arakelyan, the village head of Dashushen, built it in the middle of the 19th century.

Architectural-compositional examination

The bridge was designed and constructed for pedestrians, cattle, and pack animals. It is a double-span bridge (Fig. 2) made of unpolished, rough stones that have been reinforced with lime mortar. Only the arches' corners are constructed with polished limestone. The bridge's spans come in various sizes. The river flows underneath a large span. It is situated on the north side of the river, on the right bank, with the pier embedded in the rock (Fig. 3). The large span measures 6.44 meters in length, while the small span, 3.3 meters in length, is designed to provide a smooth surface for the bridge passage. The passageway is 3.53 meters wide and 6.30 meters tall (Fig. 4).

Fig. 2 The Bridge from the northwest, 2021, photo by A. Grigoryan.

Fig. 4 The architectural plan of the bridge, measurements by A. Hakobyan (RAA).

Fig. 5 The eastern facade of the bridge, photo by S. Karapetyan.

Fig. 3 The eastern facade of the big span, 2021, photo by A. Grigoryan.

The condition before, during, and after the war

Fortunately, the bridge remained unharmed even though these areas were heavily shelled during the Artsakh wars (Figs. 5, 6). The Armenian-Azerbaijani line of contact became so close to the monument after the war's end in 2020 that issues with the bridge's safety and maintenance arose.

Fig. 6 The western facade of the bridge, 2021, photo by A. Grigoryan.

Bibliography

  1. Karapetyan S., Bridges of Artsakh, Yerevan, 2009.
Qarashen Village’s Tadeos Bridge
Qarashen Village's Tadeos Bridge
Qarashen Village's Tadeos Bridge
Artsakh