Harichavank Monastery

Harichavank
Հառիճավանք
Harichavank ; Հառիճավանք
	Rear view of the monastery.
Religion
Affiliation	Armenian Apostolic Church
Location
Location	Harich, Shirak Province, Armenia
	Shown within Armenia Harichavank Monastery (Shirak)
Geographic coordinates	40°36′23″N 43°59′58″E / 40.606464°N 43.999422°E
Architecture
Style	Armenian
Completed	7th century, 13th century

The Harichavank (Armenian: Հառիճավանք; transliterated as Harijavank or Harichavank) is a 7th century Armenian monastery located near the village of Harich (Armenian: Հառիճ) in the Shirak Province of Armenia. The village is 3 km southeast of the town of Artik.

History

Harichavank known as one of the most famous monastic centers in Armenia and it was especially renowned for its school and scriptorium. Archaeological excavations of 1966 indicate that Harich was in existence during the 2nd century BC, and was one of the more well known fortress towns in Armenia.

The oldest part of this Armenian monastery is the Church of St. Gregory the Enlightener (Սբ. Գրիգոր Լուսավորիչ); it is a domed structure that is usually placed in the category of so-called "Mastara-style" churches (named after the fifth century church of St. Hovhannes in the village of Mastara, in the southern part of Shirak). The founding date of the monastery is unknown, but probably it was built no later than the 7th century, when St. Gregory was erected.

Harichavank was occupied and modified by the Kipchak Turks from 1120 to 1191, but the Zakarides restored the traditional decoration when then restored sovereignty after 1191.^[3] The Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God (Սբ. Աստվածածին) that dominates the monastic complex was built by the orders of Zakare Zakarian, Amirspasalar (commander-in-chief) and Prince who ruled Eastern Armenia in the 13th century together with his brother Ivane Zakarian, and completed in 1201.^[4] Prince Zakare started the Cathedral after he bought Harich from a family representing the Pahlavuni dynasty. The narthex or zhamatun was built soon after, before 1219, by a vassal of the Zakarids, Vahram.^[4]

Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God, Harichavank Monastery (1201)

The Cathedral is a cruciform church with two-story sacristies in each of the four extensions of the building. The tall 20-hedral drum of the cupola is of original style. Initially tent-roofed, it acquired triple columns on its facets and large rosettes in the piers which, together with platbands, form an unusual decorative girder around the middle of the drum height. Later, the cupola drum of the Gandzasar Monastery (1216-1238) was decorated in the same way.

The eastern facade of the Cathedral features a relief carving depicting the Zakarian brothers holding a model of the Cathedral in their hands. This theme can be found in many other Armenian churches of the time e.g. on the Memorial Cathedral of the Dadivank Monastery in Nagorno Karabakh, as well as on main churches of the Sanahin and Haghartsin monasteries in Armenia. This relief was covered in 1895 with a marble plaque featuring Madonna; when the plaque was removed, the original carving showed beneath.

Haritchavank’s Cathedral belongs to the category of "Gandzasar-style" ecclesiastical edifices that were built approximately at the same time in different parts of Armenia, and were endowed with similar compositional and decorative characteristics (another example—Cathedral of the Hovhannavank Monastery).^[5] Those include umbrella-shaped dome, cruciform floor plan, narthex (often with stalactite-ornamented ceiling), and high-relief of a large cross on one of church’s walls.

The privileges granted by the princes to the monastery contributed towards its becoming a large cultural and enlightenment center of medieval Armenia. At the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century, two monumental gavits (narthexes) were built of big stones, some measuring 3.5 meters. The larger narthex (gavit) is adjacent to the western facade of the cathedral and is linked to the northern apse of the Church of St. Gregory. It is a rectangular building supported by four pillars, with a stalactite carving in the central part of the ceiling.

Over 800 years the monastery was repeatedly reconstructed. Damages inflicted on it were repaired and small annexes and chapels were added to it at various times. The largest of these dates back to the second half of the 19th century, when Harich was made the summer audience of the Katholikos of Echmiadzin in 1850. The monastery grounds expanded northwards and were encircled with walls and towers. New one- and two-storey structures were erected: Katholikos’ offices, a refectory with a kitchen and a bakery, a school, a hostel for monks and disciples, an inn, stores and cattlesheds. Greenery was planted in the yards.

South of the monastery, on a steep cliff, stands the Hermitage Chapel. In the cemetery there are ruins of a small single-nave basilica of the fifth century with annexes in the sides of the altar apse and interesting tombstones with ornamented slabs dating from the 5th-6th centuries (now at Armenia’s State History Museum in Yerevan).

Gallery

Harichavank
View of the monastery from the side of the zhamatun
The zhamatun
Intricately detailed tympanum above the portal of the zhamatun, an adaptation of Seljukid ablaq stonework.^[6]
Church of the Holy Mother of God (1201)
Dome of church of the Holy Mother of God (1201)
Harichavank, general view
Muqarnas-type of roof in Harichavank.^[7]^[8]

References

^ Eastmond, Antony (20 April 2017). Tamta's World. Cambridge University Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-1-107-16756-8. Zakare and Ivane Mqargrdzeli on the east facade at Harichavank, Armenia, 1201
^ Eastmond, Antony (2017). Tamta's World: The Life and Encounters of a Medieval Noblewoman from the Middle East to Mongolia. Cambridge University Press. p. 52-53, Fig.17. doi:10.1017/9781316711774. ISBN 9781316711774. At Harichavank the clothes have been updated to reflect contemporary fashion, with its sharbushes (the high, peaked hats) and bright kaftans, as can be seen when comparing the image with those in contemporary manuscripts, such as the Haghbat Gospels (Matenadaran 6288) of 1211 [Fig. 17].
^ Özkan, Altnöz, Meltem (25 February 2022). Cultural Encounters and Tolerance Through Analyses of Social and Artistic Evidences: From History to the Present: From History to the Present. IGI Global. p. 273. ISBN 978-1-7998-9440-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ ^a ^b Vardanyan, Edda (1 January 2015). The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit' Structures in Armenien Architecture. Collège de France CNRS. p. 211. The same Zak'arids built the Church of the Mother of God (Surb-Astuacacin) within the Monastery of Haṙič, which was completed in 1201 according to the foundation inscription. A žamatun adjacent to this Church was constructed before 1219 by a vassal of the Zak'arids Vahram hečup and is mentioned in a colophon of a manuscript copied at the Monastery: "… and our great and pious prince Vahram who built a žamatun next to the kat'ołikē." There were only 17–18 years of difference between the construction of the Church and its žamatun.
^ Thierry, Jean. Eglises et Couvents du Karabagh. Antelais, Lebanon, 1991, pages 161-165
^ Eastmond, Antony (20 April 2017). Tamta's World. Cambridge University Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-1-107-16756-8. Another echo of the Seljuk world appears in Armenian portal design (...) Elsewhere in Mqargrdzeli Armenia the availability of multicoloured stone enabled the interlace to be accentuated with variation in colour, an adaptation of ablaq work to suit local materials, as on the entrance to the zhamatun at Harichavank.
^ Özkan, Altnöz, Meltem (25 February 2022). Cultural Encounters and Tolerance Through Analyses of Social and Artistic Evidences: From History to the Present: From History to the Present. IGI Global. p. 273. ISBN 978-1-7998-9440-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Eastmond, Antony (1 January 2017). Tamta's World: The Life and Encounters of a Medieval Noblewoman from the Middle East to Mongolia. Cambridge University Press. p. 297. doi:10.1017/9781316711774.011. Figure 108: Muqarnas stonework in the central vault of the zhamatun of the monastery of Harichavank, Armenia; c. 1224

Bibliography

Armenia: 1700 years of Christian Architecture. Moughni Publishers, Yerevan, 2001
Tom Masters and Richard Plunkett. Georgia, Armenia & Azerbaijan, Lonely Planet Publications; 2 edition (July 2004)
Nicholas Holding. Armenia with Nagorno Karabagh, Bradt Travel Guides; Second edition (October, 2006)