Parisos Castle :: ARTSAKH HISTORICAL MONUMENTS

Parisos Castle 9 — 10 cc․

Azerbaijan / Northern Artsakh / Getabek / Ghalakend

Location

The Castle of Parisos, that dominates the environment, towers on a lofty, rocky hill rising on the left bank of the river, in the north of the city site.

Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 277.

Architectural Description

The hill, which is surrounded by solid rocks in the south, imparts natural impregnability to the monument, which is otherwise also strengthened by ramparts of many towers and even double rows of fortified walls in the north and west. These ramparts, which are preserved to a height of 8 to 9 metres and are 2.5 metres thick, are built of undressed, or roughly-finished stone and mortar. The castle, whose entrance opens in the west, has more than ten semi-circular towers. The area enclosed within the ramparts retains a semi-ruined chapel and the remnants of a great number of buildings of different dimensions. In the north, the ramparts are adjoined by 2 vaulted rooms connected with each other by a common entrance. One of them used to serve as a water reservoir.

Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 277.

Waterwork

As legend has it, water reached the stronghold through an underground canal: “...At the top, the castle has a reservoir whose water is received via a subterranean canal extending from afar...”

Smbat M. Antiquities in the Neighbourhood of Getabek. In: “Nor-Dar,” 1893, No. 36, p. 3.
Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 277.

Historical Introduction
9 c․

Built between the 9th and 10th centuries, the castle of Parisos used to be one of the main strongholds of the kingdom of the same name and served as a citadel for its capital bearing the same name.

Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 277.

Description
19 c․

Several researchers who visited the monument in the late 19th century provide interesting records with its description. Thus, S. Kamalian, who saw it in the summer of 1890, writes: “...The village abuts on the eastern side of a limestone hill which retains the solid ramparts of a castle at its top (they have some holes and crevices). I ascended the hillside in a north-easterly direction, where limestone was extracted and loaded onto huge carts. Mounting the horses near a bridge extending in the north, we continued our way on a crooked road that bent in many places. From the foot of the hill the castle seemed impossible to reach, but 25 minutes later, we were walking around its ramparts happily and studying the stones heaped there. The hill was surrounded by a green pasture, with white layers of lime seen from below the soil and grass. The ramparts were outwardly covered with some bushes, several big oak-trees growing in their northern part. In the south, the hill, which was as lofty as a mountain, was adjoined by a long, deep gorge with a stream taking its source in a remote peak called Satani Khach [the Armenian equivalent for ‘Cross of the Devil’]. The entrance of the castle, that opened in the west, was at the edge of the gorge: those entering it first of all cast a glance over the right side, where the river babbled. A large territory below the ramparts, between the northern part of the castle and its entrance, was paved with stone. ...the fortified walls, that were quite high, had some deep, cylindrical inner crevices, four vershoks in diametre. The stronghold had greatly subsided, with its interior and vicinity reduced to ruins, although the western and northern parts of its ramparts were still preserved. It is said to have had its own water system and reservoir in periods of might and prosperity. The latter exists even today, but the water has changed its course, apparently, upset about something. Two mills functioned at the expense of a large spring welling out from below a small hill in the north of the castle... It took source within some 2 to 3 versts of the castle, but we were assured that if straw was poured into its water from a certain part of the stronghold, it surfaced some time later. The meagre vestiges of an ancient chapel were preserved in the centre of the castle, where traces of candles ... could be seen. Mounting the horses near the bridge, we left behind the newly-blossomed millet fields, crossed the mountain chain rising on the left and descended the gorge where the tributary Shakar Bey flowed.”

Yeghishe Charents Art and Literature Museum. Sargis Kamalian Fund, copy-book No. 1, VI-11, pp. 24-26.
Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, pp. 277-279.

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

Type Photo
View Exterior
Author Samvel Karapetyan
Source Colour Negative

Type Photo
Direction From the south
Author Hovhannes Zakarian

Type Photo
View Exterior
Author Hovhannes Zakarian
Source Colour Negative

Type Photo
View Exterior
Author Raphael Abgarian

Partial view of the pyramidal masonry of the castle ramparts

Type Photo
View General
Direction From the north
Author Samvel Karapetyan
Source Black-and-white negative
Date 1980 — 1982 yy․

Type Photo
View Partial view
Author Samvel Karapetyan
Source Black-and-white negative
Date 1980 — 1982 yy․

Partial views of its fortified walls

Type Photo
View Partial view
Author Samvel Karapetyan
Source Black-and-white negative
Date 1980 — 1982 yy․

Partial views of its fortified walls

Type Photo
View Partial view
Author Samvel Karapetyan
Source Black-and-white negative
Date 1980 — 1982 yy․

Type Photo
View From space
Author http://earth.google.com