Funerary Memorial :: ARTSAKH HISTORICAL MONUMENTS

Funerary Memorial 1275 y․

NKR / Karvajar / Chapni / Mets Chapni

Location

About 24-m northeast of the church there was a vaulted tomb with a khachkar still standing on it.

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 31.

Description

Fortunately the former investigators (Jalaliants and Ter-Movsissian) have provided the detailed description of the tomb, owing to which we may now reconstruct its initial form: “A double-storied tomb with a khachkar inside. Its lower floor is rectangular, with the height of 2.5 m, the facade is open, and three other sides are built of finely processed stone. The second floor consists of four one-piece pillars crowned with a small dome. Under the dome and between the columns there is a beautiful cross with rich ornament, and deficient inscription”.

Mesrop Magistros Archbishop Ter-Movsisian, Churches and Religious Structures of Three Large Armenia Monasteries: Tatev, Haghartzin and Dadi Vank…, Jerusalem, 1970, p. 93.
Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, pp. 31, 33.

1960 y․

D. Akhundov has published the photography of the tomb, taken probably in the sixties.

D. A. Akhundov, Architecture of the Ancient and Early Medieval Azerbaijan, Baku 1986, p. 227, Fig. 263 (in Rus.).
Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 33.

Currently, except the pillared dome, under which the khachkar was erected, other parts of the tomb are almost totally preserved, though badly worn. By some magic the fallen dome didn’t damage the cross.

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 33.

Inscription, Armenian, Engraved, Commemoration

Finally, the inscription found on the wall of the tomb and published by S. Jalaliants, and later repub-lished by M. Ter-Movsissian and S. Barkhudarian reads:
“TRUSTING IN THE LORD, WE HASSAN, AND JOGHBEG, AND INANK KHATUN, THE SONS OF ARTUR, GAVE THE PLOT FROM HASSAN’S LANDS TO SURB KARAPET, TO THE CHURCHES OF HASSAN. GOD BLESS THOSE WHO DID IT.”

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 35.

Type Photo
View Exterior
Direction From the south-west
Author Samvel Karapetyan

Type Photo
View Exterior
Author Samvel Karapetyan
Source Black-and-white negative

Type Photo
View Exterior
Author Samvel Karapetyan

Type Photo
Author Samvel Karapetyan
Source Black-and-white negative