Location: Akhtala, Lori Province Map
Constructed: 10th century
Akhtala Monastery is located 185 kilometers (115 mi) north of
Armenian capital of Yerevan near a town of Akhtala of Lori Province.
Akhtala Monastery is a religious complex that was constructed in the
10th century on a steep mountain slope near Debit river. Its name is
taken from a town near by and has Turcic origin that can translated
as a "white glade". It is one of the most fortified monasteries of
the Armenian Apostolic Church. Akhtala Monastery was initially
constructed as a Royal residence on top of older Bronze Age and Iron
Age settlements. In the 13th century it was turned into a Armenian
Apostolic monastery. Today the monastery is inactive and abandoned.
Despite centuries of abandonment Akhtala Monastery is one of the
best preserved religious complexes in Armenia. Akhtala Monastery is
particularly famous for its highly artistic murals that cover the
interior walls of the main church. Frescoes depict the faces of
saints and religious scenes from the Bible. Other structures of the
abbey include two storey living quarters with cells for the monks
and pilgrims. Additionally Akhtala Monastery contains a large
network of underground tunnels that were probably dug when it was a
royal residence. Military defenses encircle the whole complex. As
you walk around Akhtala Abbey and its vicinity you can notice large
boulders with carvings of crosses that are known as "hachkara"
("hach" means "cross" in Armenian).
In the X century, the Pgnzaank (Akhtala) fortress
became the most important strategic point of the kingdom of
Kyurikyan-Bagratids. An inscription in Armenian in khachkar reports
the construction in 1188 of Mariam, daughter of Tsar Tashir-Dzoraget
Curik, the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the beginning of
the XIII century, Atabek Ivane Mkhargrdzeli from the Zakaryan
family, an influential person at the court of the Georgian Queen
Tamara, who transferred from the Armenian Apostolic Church to the
bosom of the Georgian Orthodox Church, transfers the monastery to
Chalcedonites and rebuilds the Armenian church.
Kirakos Gandzaketsi, author of the mid-13th century, reports:
“Ivane, the brother of Zakare, also died, and was buried in
Phindzaank, at the entrance to the church he built; he took it from
the Armenians and turned it into a Georgian monastery. "
In the XIII century, the owners of the monastery
were Zakaryans, Pgndzaank became the largest Chalcedonian monastery
and cultural center of Northern Armenia, but administratively was
the center of the diocese of the Georgian Orthodox Church. In the
altar apse of the main temple, a niche intended for the hierarchal
services was made, which was not typical for the Chalcedonian
temples of Northern Armenia. In the middle of the XIII century,
Simeon Plindzakhanetsi worked in the monastery, as evidenced by the
colophon preserved in the manuscript of 1248, “made by the hand of
an unworthy Simeon”, which translated “from Georgian into Armenian
in the Armenian country, in the Georgian monastery called“
Plindzakhank ”. In the XIV century, the name "Pndzaank" disappears
from historical sources. Presumably, from the 30s of the XIV
century, the monastery entered the Akhtal Metropolitanate of the
Mtskheta Catholicosate. Georgian church letter of 1392 reports:
“In Akhtala, ten smokes of Armenians with their estates and with the
payment of taxes ...”
In 1438, for the first time, a village with the name Akhtala was
mentioned in the sources as the property of the Georgian
Catholicosate. At the beginning of the XVIII century, the monastery
fell into disrepair; under Ateni Sioni there was a courtyard of
Bishop Akhtalsky. In 1801, by decree of the Russian Emperor
Alexander I, Akhtal was transformed into the center of the Greek
Orthodox Church in Transcaucasia. At present, it remains the most
important place of pilgrimage for the Greeks, annually on September
21 celebrating the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin in Akhtal.
Structure
The main temple of Akhtala - the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary -
is a cross-domed building, the unexploded dome of which rested on 2
octagonal pillars and pre-apse pilasters. The syncretism of the
features of Armenian and Georgian architecture of the 13th century,
characteristic of this temple, was particularly evident in the forms
and decorations of the exterior, where large Georgian crosses and
window frames are typical Georgian, and the portals are consonant
with Armenian patterns. From the west, approximately in the middle
of the 13th century, the tomb of Ivane and a portico with open
arches were rectangular in plan. The murals of the church date from
between 1205 and 1216. In accordance with Georgian tradition, the
sails contain images of evangelists in medallions, and on the front
sides of the arches the text is Ps 103. 19 on the asomtavruli. The
iconographic program of the altar apse (in the conch Mother of God
with the Child on the throne, below the composition "Communion of
the Apostles", below it 2 rows of saints) reproduces the most
stringent byzant. samples. The connection with the national cultural
tradition of the Armenian Chalcedonites was manifested in the
location in the center of the lower tier of the image of the
enlightener of Armenia St. Gregory the Illuminator. At the bottom of
the western wall are the saints of the Georgian Church, among which
St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Nina and John Zedazneli. In the southern
and northern arms of the spatial cross, cycles of paintings are
dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and Savior. A study of the
stylistic features of the frescoes and the nature of the
inscriptions suggests that at least 8 artists participated in the
work, among them there was an Armenian Chalcedonite familiar with
Byzantine painting of the late Komednikin era (altar apse); an
artist who followed the samples of Byzantine painting of the 1st
half of the 13th century (upper registers of the northern and
southern walls and the main arches); masters from Georgia, painted
the western wall.
In addition to the main church inside the monastery, there is a small hall church of St. Basil and the ruins of a two-story residential building. Around the monastery at different distances are four chapel churches dedicated to the Holy Trinity, St. Apostles, Saints Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom. Restoration work in Akhtal was carried out from 1979 to 1989 by the Department for the Protection of Monuments of Armenia.