Gandzasar Monastery

The monastery at Gandzasar was first mentioned in the 10th century by Catholicos Anania Mokaci. The construction of Gandzasar's Cathedral of St. John the Baptist began in 1216, under the patronage of the Armenian prince of Khachen, Hasan-Jalal Dawla, and it was completed in 1238 and consecrated on July 22, 1240. Gandzasar was, from about 1400 until 1816, the residence of the catholicoi of the Catholicosate of Aghvank under the jurisdiction of the Armenian Apostolic Church. At the beginning of the 18th century the illustrious political figures of the liberating movement in Karabakh and Syunik united round the Catholicos Yesayi Hasan-Jalalyan and Gandzasar kept his role as the centre of this movement until 1815.

The complex is protected by high walls. Within the complex is the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (Սուրբ Հովհաննես Մկրտիչ եկեղեցի in Armenian), built between 1216 and 1238. Some art historians consider the monastery to represent one of the masterpieces of Armenian architecture. Anatoly L. Yakobson, a prominent Soviet medieval art historian, described Gandzasar as a "pearl of architectural art....This is a unique monument of medieval architecture and monumental sculpture, which by right ought to be regarded as an encyclopedia of 13th-century Armenian art.”

On the walls of Gandzasar there are various inscriptions in Armenian. They have been at the center of researcher’s attention from the 19th century. It is characteristic that in 1909 Hovsep Orbeli counted here more than 84 illustrations. One of them represents the story of the erection of Gandzasar's Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. Gandzasar is now one of the spiritual centers of Arcakh.