St. Astvatsatsin Church of Khandzadzor

Location

The church is located in Khandzadzor village of Hadrut region of the Artsakh Republic. The village is situated on the southeastern slope of Dizapayt, in a bare and unattractive area (Fig. 1), from where it got its name. The village is also called Tsarishen, which is associated with a large elm growing in the center of the village (Mkrtchyan 1985, 128). Researcher Shahen Mkrtchyan gives a very brief description of the village and the church in his book on the monuments of Nagorno Karabakh, published in Armenian in 1985. The author refers to the church in more detail in the book dedicated to the monuments of Nagorno Karabakh, already published in Russian in 1988 (Мкртчян 1988, 104).

The church is located in the southeastern, elevated district of the village, next to the monument dedicated to the Patriotic War.

Historical overview

There is no historical information about the church. According to the certificate of St. Astvatsatsin Church of Khandzadzor made by the Monument Protection Department of the MESCS of the Artsakh Republic, the church was built in the 19th century on the site of a former church.

Architectural-compositional description

 The church plan presents a rectangular, single-nave vaulted hall with an eastern semicircular altar and adjacent vestries (Fig. 2), at that the bema is only one step above the prayer hall (Fig. 7). The cylindrical vault rests on an arcade composed of wall-adjacent columns. The dimensions of the church are 14 X 6 X 7 meters. The only entrance is from the south (Fig. 3). There are two large cross reliefs on the upper stone of the lintel, which was reused twice and adapted for the lintel. On the right and left sides of the entrance there are khachkars typical of the 17th century (Fig. 4), whose right side has an inscription. The church is built of local semi-finished limestone (Figs. 5, 6).