Sacvoyage travel Armenia

Home :: Attractions :: Tsiranavor church (Ashtarak)

Tsiranavor church (Ashtarak)

The Church of Tsiranavor St. Astvatsatsin (V c.) is located at the edge of a gorge in the town of Ashtarak. The building dating from the early Christian period. There is an opinion that it had been a pagan temple, later transformed into a church.

Tsiranavor is a tri-nave basilica without a roof and a southern wall. Only the walls, the altar and southern nave have been preserved. In XII-XIIIc., outer double walls were built to make the church impregnable. It served as a fortress and asylum for the inhabitants of its surrounding areas. The remains of the material culture testify that at the beginning of I millennium, the religious and administrative centre of Ashtarak was located on this promontory of the Kasakh Gorge, where a pagan temple used to be.

Not far from Tsiranavor is Spitakavor. It looks as though it is a tower-observation post of an old fortress extending its hand to St. Sargis.