St. Astvatsatsin Church of Arevashat

Location

St. Astvatsatsin Church is located in Arevashat (Dolanlar) village of Hadrut region of Artsakh. It is in the old district of Arevashat, on the eastern edge of the village (Fig. 1). In the result of the 2020 war, Arevashat as well as the whole region of Hadrut are occupied by Azerbaijan.

Architectural-compositional description

St. Astvatsatsin Church was built at the beginning of the 20th century. It is a three-nave building with a rectangular plan (Fig. 2). It was built of local rough stones, yellowish limestone and lime mortar. The walls of the interior are plastered. Only the external cornerstones of the doors and windows are hewn.

The semicircular altar is on the eastern side. The dome of the altar used to be vaulted, but was not preserved. There are vestries parallel to the altar. The ceiling was timbered, the heaviness of the roof was borne by the wooden pillars. The roof used to be glazed and tiled, which was later replaced with metal sheet. Neither the roof nor the columns have been preserved. The church was destroyed in the years of the First Artsakh War as a result of Operation Ring, during the Azerbaijani occupation of the village (1991-1993), in the result of which not only the church was burned and destroyed (Figs. 3, 4), but also the whole village, the cemetery and almost all the monuments of the area.

The church has one entrance, opened from the southern facade (Fig. 5). The right and left segments of the entrance are decorated with beautifully sculptured pilaster capitals (Figs. 6, 7). The illumination was provided through one large window on the western facade, three large windows on the southern facade and from the east through one small window of the altar and twin vestries.

During the Soviet years, the church served for economic purposes, was turned into a warehouse and underwent certain annexes.