St. Gevork Church :: ARTSAKH HISTORICAL MONUMENTS

St. Gevork Church

Azerbaijan / Northern Artsakh / Shamkhor / Dashbulagh

Architectural Description

The main building of Huskan Nahatak Monastery, St. Gevorg Church (exterior dimensions: 14 x 7.95 metres), represents a uni-nave vaulted structure. Its walls are remarkable for their thickness (123 centimetres), which is characteristic of other religious monuments of the late Middle Ages found in the region. The vault of the prayer hall rests on a pair of pilasters and lies below a gable roof. The walls of the bema and the entire church in general have niches. The monument (it is devoid of vestries), whose only entrance opens in the south, is illuminated through windows opening from its four facades. St. Gevorg Church bears the evident signs of reconstruction periodically carried out there. With its interior plastered, it is mainly built of undressed stone and mortar, except for its cornerstones which are finely-cut. A great number of khachkars and tombstones (including some fragments) set in the exterior walls of the church make it particularly remarkable. Their stylistic and decorative peculiarities trace them back to the period between the 16th and 17th centuries.

“Nor-Dar,” 1893, No. 133, p. 2.
Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 479.

Inscription, Armenian, Engraved, Commemoration 1882 y․

2 lines in the Armenian original carved on the southern facade of the church:
1882. Mkrtich Mariniants.
The Armenian original published in: Karapetian, S. The Monasteries of Gardmank: Huskan Nahatak. In: “Gardmank,” 1997, No. 3, p. 9.

Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 481.

Inscription, Armenian, Engraved, Commemoration 1886 y․

Engraved on a fragment lying inside the church:
1886. Gevorg Boziants from Sholavor.
The Armenian original published in: Karapetian, S. The Monasteries of Gardmank: Huskan Nahatak. In: “Gardmank,” 1997, No. 3, p. 9.

Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 481.

Inscription, Armenian, Engraved, Commemoration 1902 y․

8 brief lines in the Armenian original incised into a stone lying in front of the bema:
In commemoration of the overhaul of this holy monastery [in the days of] Priest Mesrop Stepanossiants the Prior. 1902.
The Armenian original published in: Karapetian, S. The Monasteries of Gardmank: Huskan Nahatak. In: “Gardmank,” 1997, No. 3, p. 9.