The Surb Gevorg Church of Maghavuz

Historical overview

Makar Barkhudaryants briefly mentions the church: “...the church of Surb Gevorg, wooden...” (Barkhutareants 1895, 221). Vahram Balayan, in his description of Maghavuz, dates the construction of the Surb Gevorg Church to 1901 (Balayan 2020, 330). The same year—1901—is also recorded as the construction date in the church’s protected-zone certificate.

The present church is built of stone, whereas Barkhudaryants describes a wooden church. This discrepancy suggests that the current stone-built church was erected on the site of an earlier wooden structure.

Architectural-compositional examination

In plan, Surb Gevorg is a three-nave, barrel-vaulted hall church, constructed of locally quarried, finely dressed limestone blocks of small to medium size. Within the corpus of 19th-20th century rural churches in Artsakh, it is among the relatively few examples executed in finely dressed stone.

The building is notable for its huge windows-unusual for rural 19th-century churches. There are eight windows in total. Unlike many village churches, where the sole and principal entrance is typically placed on the south façade, Surb Gevorg’s main entrance is on the west façade (Fig. 2). A second entrance opens on the south façade (Fig. 3). No construction inscriptions are preserved on the lintels of either doorway.

The vaulted roof is carried by a system of eight engaged piers and four free-standing columns with arches springing from them (Figs. 4, 5). The exterior walls are plain and unornamented, lacking relief sculpture, decorative carving, or embedded khachkars.