Narekavank ( hy, Նարեկավանք, "Monastery of Narek",
Western Armenian
Western Armenian ( Classical spelling: , ) is one of the two standardized forms of Modern Armenian, the other being Eastern Armenian. It is based mainly on the Istanbul Armenian dialect, as opposed to Eastern Armenian, which is mainly base ...
: ''Nareg'')
was a tenth-century
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
monastery in the historic province of
Vaspurakan
Vaspurakan (, Western Armenian pronunciation: ''Vasbouragan'') was the eighth province of the ancient kingdom of Armenia, which later became an independent kingdom during the Middle Ages, centered on Lake Van. Located in what is now southeaster ...
, near the southern shores of
Lake Van
Lake Van ( tr, Van Gölü; hy, Վանա լիճ, translit=Vana lič̣; ku, Gola Wanê) is the largest lake in Turkey. It lies in the far east of Turkey, in the provinces of Van and Bitlis in the Armenian highlands. It is a saline soda lake ...
, in present-day
Gevaş
Gevaş ( hy, Ոստան, lit= rincelycourt, translit=Vostan, ku, Westan) is a district of Van Province of Turkey. It is located on the south shore of Lake Van. In the last elections of March 2019, Murat Sezer from the Justice and Development Par ...
district in the
Van Province
Van Province ( tr, Van ili, ku, Parezgêha Wanê, Armenian: Վանի մարզ) is a province in the Eastern Anatolian region of Turkey, between Lake Van and the Iranian border. It is 19,069 km2 in area and had a population of 1,035,418 a ...
in eastern
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
. The monastery was one of the most prominent in medieval Armenia and had a major school. The poet
Gregory of Narek
Grigor Narekatsi ( hy, Գրիգոր Նարեկացի; anglicized: Gregory of Narek) ( – 1003/1011) was an Armenian mystical and lyrical poet, monk, and theologian. He is venerated as a saint in the Armenian Apostolic and Catholic Churches an ...
(Grigor Narekatsi) notably flourished at the monastery. It was abandoned in 1915 during the
Armenian genocide
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily through t ...
, and reportedly demolished around 1951. A mosque now stands on its location.
History
10th-11th centuries
The monastery was founded during the reign of the
Artsruni
The Artsruni ( hy, Արծրունի; also transliterated as Ardzruni) were an ancient noble (princely) family of Armenia.
Background and history
The Artsruni's claimed descent from Sennacherib, King of Assyria (705 BC–681 BC). Although ...
King
Gagik I of
Vaspurakan
Vaspurakan (, Western Armenian pronunciation: ''Vasbouragan'') was the eighth province of the ancient kingdom of Armenia, which later became an independent kingdom during the Middle Ages, centered on Lake Van. Located in what is now southeaster ...
(r. 908–43) by Armenian monks who fled the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
due to religious persecution.
In the 10th century father Ananias of Narek (Anania Narekatsi, (
arm
In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between th ...
)) founded a school, which became one of the most prominent centers of learning in medieval Armenia.
Gregory of Narek
Grigor Narekatsi ( hy, Գրիգոր Նարեկացի; anglicized: Gregory of Narek) ( – 1003/1011) was an Armenian mystical and lyrical poet, monk, and theologian. He is venerated as a saint in the Armenian Apostolic and Catholic Churches an ...
(Grigor Narekatsi, 951-1003), a prominent mystical poet, studied and flourished at the monastery, making the "name of the institution immortal". To this day, the monastery is mostly associated with Gregory of Narek. Among others, the historian
Ukhtanes studied at the monastery school.
During this period, the monastery was among the most prominent in all of Armenia and was also a major center of manuscript production. The earliest surviving manuscript produced at the monastery is a Gospel dated 1069.
Modern period
Armenia was dominated by various foreign powers in the subsequent centuries. The
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
gained control of the region by the 16th century. The monastery experienced a revival when in 1707 it was profoundly renovated by Minas ''
vardapet
A vardapet or vartabed ( hy, վարդապետ, in Western Armenian or aɾda'pεtin Eastern Armenian) is a highly educated archimandrite in the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Armenian Catholic Church traditions who holds a Doctorate in Theol ...
'' Ghapantsi. In 1812 a bell-tower was constructed within the monastery walls. The two domes were restored in 1843 by the architect Sahrat Memarbashi and his son Movses. In 1858 the monastery was renovated by Hovhannes ''vardapet''. Father Hovsep Rabuni commissioned a ''
khachkar'' (cross stone), which was placed on the tomb of Gregory of Narek. It depicted the
Mother of God
''Theotokos'' (Greek: ) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are ''Dei Genitrix'' or ''Deipara'' (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"). Familiar English translations ar ...
carrying
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...
on her lap and Gregory on the foreground.
![Narekavank 1911](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Narekavank_1911.png)
In 1884 Aristakes ''vardapet'' opened a seminary at the monastery and in 1901 an orphanage with a school was founded.
In 1896, during the government-sanctioned
Hamidian massacres, the monastery was attacked by Kurds who killed father Yeghishe and 12 monks.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries the monastery was visited by Western missionaries. Reverend
Harrison Gray Otis Dwight described Narekavank a "celebrated monastery". In 1900 the American journal ''The Missionary Herald'' wrote that the monastery's orphanage had 25 to 30 boys, while the monastery school was "by far the largest and most advanced school in the province outside the city
f Van this village unlike most others, having had some sort of a school for several years."
In the early 20th century the monastery was surrounded by residential houses and various buildings for economic purposes.
A 1911 photo by the ethnographer
Yervand Lalayan shows "peasants with oxen plowing a field directly beneath its walls."
The American missionary Herbert M. Allen (1865–1911) wrote in 1903 that
Architecture
The monastic complex contained two churches: St. Sandukht and Surb Astvatsatsin ("Holy Mother of God"). The mausoleum of
Gregory of Narek
Grigor Narekatsi ( hy, Գրիգոր Նարեկացի; anglicized: Gregory of Narek) ( – 1003/1011) was an Armenian mystical and lyrical poet, monk, and theologian. He is venerated as a saint in the Armenian Apostolic and Catholic Churches an ...
was located to the east of the St. Sandukht church. The church of Surb Astvatsatsin had a "domed hall" design, and was located south of St. Sandukht. In 1787 ''
vardapet
A vardapet or vartabed ( hy, վարդապետ, in Western Armenian or aɾda'pεtin Eastern Armenian) is a highly educated archimandrite in the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Armenian Catholic Church traditions who holds a Doctorate in Theol ...
'' Barsegh built a rectangular, four-columned
gavit
A ''gavit'' (Armenian ) or ''zhamatun'' (Armenian: ) is often contiguous to the west of a church in a Medieval Armenian monastery. It served as narthex (entrance to the church), mausoleum and assembly room.
History
The ''gavit'', the distinctive ...
(
narthex
The narthex is an architectural element typical of early Christian and Byzantine basilicas and churches consisting of the entrance or lobby area, located at the west end of the nave, opposite the church's main altar. Traditionally the narthex ...
), on the tombs of Hovhannes ''vardapet'' (the brother of Gregory) and the philosopher Ananias of Narek. In front of the gavit's western entrance a three-storey bell-tower
was built in 1812.
Destruction and current state
The monastery ceased to function during the
Armenian genocide
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily through t ...
of 1915 which resulted in the Armenian population of the region being exterminated.
According to
Sevan Nişanyan
Sevan Nişanyan ( hyw, Սեւան Նշանեան; born 21 December 1956) is a Turkish-Armenian writer and linguist. An author of a number of books ("The Wrong Republic", "The Etymological Dictionary" and others), Nişanyan was awarded the Ayşe ...
it was demolished around 1951, at the same period that an official order for the demolition of the
Holy Cross Cathedral of Aghtamar was issued.
The village of Narek is now largely Kurdish-populated and is known as
Yemişlik in Turkish
and Nerik in Kurdish. The scholar
James R. Russell, who visited the monastery site in 1994 and 1997, was told by local Kurdish villagers that a 10th-century ''
khachkar'' (cross stone) was destroyed by the Turkish police.
The monastery is completely destroyed. In the early 2000s "there were still some remnants of an archway of the monastery."
A mosque now stands where the monastery once stood.
In December 2008 the Turkish-Armenian architect Zakarya Mildanoğlu announced that the Turkish government had decided to rebuild Narekavank, among some other half-ruined or destroyed churches and monasteries in eastern Turkey.
In September 2010, Mildanoğlu compiled a list of around 90 Armenian churches and monasteries in the
Lake Van
Lake Van ( tr, Van Gölü; hy, Վանա լիճ, translit=Vana lič̣; ku, Gola Wanê) is the largest lake in Turkey. It lies in the far east of Turkey, in the provinces of Van and Bitlis in the Armenian highlands. It is a saline soda lake ...
region including Narekavank. He recommended that the Turkish government take the necessary measures to preserve them.
[ riginally published on 17 September 2010"Nareg Köyü’nde (Yemişlik) yer alıyordu. Akhtamar’ın karşı yakasında dış kapısı olarak kullanılan bölgede inşa edilmiştir. Nareg Köyü’nden olan Surp Krikor Naregatsi bu manastıra yerleşir. Bir yetimhane yanında geniş arazileri vardı. Her yıl binlerce kişi adakta bulunmak için bu manastırı ziyaret ederdi."]
See also
Other prominent churches in the Lake Van region:
*
Holy Cross Cathedral on
Aghtamar Island
*
Varagavank
References
{{Armenian Churches , state=expanded
Armenian churches in Turkey
Oriental Orthodox congregations established in the 10th century
Christian monasteries established in the 10th century
Destroyed churches in Turkey
History of Van Province
Demolished buildings and structures in Turkey
Former churches in Turkey
Ruined churches in Turkey
Kingdom of Vaspurakan
Buildings and structures demolished in 1951