The Church of the Holy Mother of God of the Mens Monastery, also known as Pashavank ( hy, Պաշավանք) was an Armenian Apostolic church in the city of

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...

located on the right bank of the Kura River. It was destroyed by the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

in 1938.

History

Pashavank was founded in the 14th century by the grandsons of Baron Umek who arrived in Tbilisi from Karin ( Erzerum) in the 13th century. The structure was restored in 1480, and more extensively in 1789. It was seat of the Armenian archbishop in 1914. Hrants was the largest church in Tbilisi until it was demolished in 1930 by Soviet authorities. J. Buchan Telfer, Captain in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, wrote in his 1876 book "the principal church of the Armenians is the Pasha Vank, a handsome building within a high-walled enclosure; an inscription below a window records that it was erected by Ghoulants Khodja Giorgi, in the reign of Vakhtang VI, 1719-24; the Georgians have given the name of Pasha Vank, because they say it was erected by a Turkish pasha who had embraced the Christian faith."

Architecture

The church of S. Astvatsatsin was very original in design. Its exterior was constructed of solid brickwork, and was a triple-

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

(with equal naves)

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

in plan. There were

barrel vault A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...

s under

saddle roof A saddle roof is a roof form which follows a convex curve about one axis and a concave curve about the other. The hyperbolic paraboloid form has been used for roofs at various times since it is easily constructed from straight sections of lumber, ...

s and three

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

s above the east spans, the central one being the tallest whereas the other two were slightly smaller. The

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

s were

dodecagon In geometry, a dodecagon or 12-gon is any twelve-sided polygon. Regular dodecagon A regular dodecagon is a figure with sides of the same length and internal angles of the same size. It has twelve lines of reflective symmetry and rotational sym ...

al, with twelve long windows located under blind arches topped by horizontal molding and a row of decorative

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

s. Conical umbrella style

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

s surmounted the drums. The interior was painted by Hovnatan Hovnatanian in 1789.

Gallery

Armenian cathedral of Vank, Tbilisi (de Baye).JPG, The Church of the Holy Mother of God, 1900. Image:1900TbilisiDowntown.jpg, View of downtown Tbilisi, 1900 (the church of S. Astvatsatsin is to the left of center) Image:Raffi Kojian-Tiflis belltower-IMG 0388.jpg, Bell-tower at 3 Atoneli Street is all that remains of the complex

References

{{Armenian Churches Armenian churches in Tbilisi Old Tbilisi Destroyed churches Demolished churches in the Soviet Union Armenian Apostolic churches in Tbilisi Armenian Apostolic cathedrals in Georgia (country)

History

Architecture

Gallery

See also

References