Geghard Monastery
Medieval monastery in the Azat gorge, half of it cut straight into the cliff; a World Heritage site.
Tradition places the founding of a monastery at this spring in the fourth century, and the site was long known as Ayrivank, the monastery of the cave. The present complex begins with the Katoghike, the main church, built in 1215 under the patronage of the Zakarid brothers Zakare and Ivane; a vaulted gavit was added in front of it by 1225. The site owes its later name to the spear said to have pierced Christ at the Crucifixion, which was kept here for centuries and is now in the treasury at Echmiadzin.
From about 1240 the Proshyan princes, who acquired the monastery, had a series of chambers hewn directly out of the cliff. These include the Avazan church cut around a spring, the tomb chamber of Prince Prosh with its carved lion and eagle relief, and a second gavit with a hole in the roof for light, all attributed to a master named Galdzak and finished in the 1280s. The monastery and the upper Azat valley were inscribed as a World Heritage site in 2000.
Highlights
- Katoghike church of 1215 and its vaulted gavit
- Avazan church cut from the rock around a spring
- Proshyan tomb chamber with lion and eagle relief
- Khachkars carved into the cliffs above the monastery
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