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Daşbulaq is a village and municipality in the
As with many ancient ruins in the Caucasus, the history of the ancient church ruins is disputed. In 2016, Russia-born Azerbaijani translator and historian Afgan Khalili (Əfqan Xəlilli) published an overview of the existing scholarship on the site which, to locals the site is known as İrmaşli Piri, i.e. a holy site rather than a church per se. He interrogates the Armenian sources of Samvel Karapetyan who photographed the ruins in 1985 and recorded the name in Armenian as Huskan Natahak Vank, based on Armenian-language newspaper stories of the 1880s. However, at the time that Karapetyan visited, many Armenians lived in nearby Bado and none reported any memory of the site being a church during recent history. Many ancient inscription stones are dotted around the site, or reset into walls but in a fashion that suggests that their location is a part of a somewhat haphazard restoration. Videos posted in 2019 suggest that part of the roof has collapsed threatening the interior with further damage.2019 video of the church site
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Shamkir Rayon
Shamkir District ( az, Şəmkir rayonu) is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. It is located in the north-west of the country and belongs to the Gazakh-Tovuz Economic Region. The district borders the districts of Gadabay, Tovuz, Samukh, Goy ...
of Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
. It has a population of 591 and sits on a ridgetop in the foothills of the Lesser Caucasus
The Lesser Caucasus, also called Caucasus Minor, is the second of the two main mountain ranges of Caucasus mountains, of length about . The western portion of the Lesser Caucasus overlaps and converges with east Turkey and northwest Iran.
It runs ...
.
It is sometimes known as Dağ İrmaşlı as there is a strong family connection between the village and the small town of İrmaşlı
İrmaşlı (pronounced Irmashly) is a large village and municipality in the Shamkir Rayon of Azerbaijan. It has a population of 4,001.
History
İrmaşlı combines an ancient Azerbaijani settlement with the 19th-century German 'colony' village o ...
on the plains below, though at present the only roads between the two are unpaved and unsuitable for city cars. There is a small, recently semi-restored Caucasian-Albanian church ruin on the lip of the ridge surveying a wide panorama to the north.
The Church Ruin
As with many ancient ruins in the Caucasus, the history of the ancient church ruins is disputed. In 2016, Russia-born Azerbaijani translator and historian Afgan Khalili (Əfqan Xəlilli) published an overview of the existing scholarship on the site which, to locals the site is known as İrmaşli Piri, i.e. a holy site rather than a church per se. He interrogates the Armenian sources of Samvel Karapetyan who photographed the ruins in 1985 and recorded the name in Armenian as Huskan Natahak Vank, based on Armenian-language newspaper stories of the 1880s. However, at the time that Karapetyan visited, many Armenians lived in nearby Bado and none reported any memory of the site being a church during recent history. Many ancient inscription stones are dotted around the site, or reset into walls but in a fashion that suggests that their location is a part of a somewhat haphazard restoration. Videos posted in 2019 suggest that part of the roof has collapsed threatening the interior with further damage./ref>
References
* Populated places in Shamkir District {{Shamkir-geo-stub