The Church of Shoghakat ( hy, Շողակաթ եկեղեցի; meaning "drop of light" because of the ray of light that came down from heaven upon Hripsime's martyrs) was erected in 1694 by Prince Aghamal Sorotetsi during the reign of

Catholicos Catholicos, plural Catholicoi, is a title used for the head of certain churches in some Eastern Christian traditions. The title implies autocephaly and in some cases it is the title of the head of an autonomous church. The word comes from ancient ...

Nahabed I in the city of

Vagharshapat Vagharshapat ( hy, Վաղարշապատ ) is the 4th-largest city in Armenia and the most populous municipal community of Armavir Province, located about west of the capital Yerevan, and north of the closed Turkish-Armenian border. It is c ...

(Etchmiadzin), in

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''O ...

Armavir Province Armavir ( hy, Արմավիր, ), is a province (''marz'') in the western part of Armenia. Located in the Ararat plain dominated by Mount Ararat from the south and Mount Aragats from the north, the province's capital is the town of Armavir wh ...

History

The church sits on the holy site where a group of unnamed nuns following Gayane and Hripsime were martyred during the time of the conversion of Armenia to Christianity in the year 301 AD. The 5th-century Armenian historian

Agathangelos Agathangelos (in xcl, Ագաթանգեղոս Agatʿangełos, in Greek "bearer of good news" or angel, 5th century AD ) is the pseudonym of the author of a life of the first apostle of Armenia, Gregory the Illuminator, who died about 332. ...

wrote that the young and beautiful Hripsime who at the time was a Christian nun in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, was to be forcefully married to the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

emperor

Diocletian Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...

. She and the abbess Gayane among other nuns fled the tyrant emperor and left to Armenia. The pagan Armenian

King Trdat Tiridates III (Armenian: Գ ''Trdat III''; – c. 330), also known as Tiridates the Great ( hy, Տրդատ Մեծ ''Trdat Mets''), or Tiridates IV, was the Armenian Arsacid king from c.298 to c. 330. In 301, Tiridates proclaimed Christiani ...

received a letter from Diocletian in which he described her beauty. Trdat discovered where the nuns were hiding, and fell in love with Hripsime and later Gayane. After their refusal of his advances, Hripsime and Gayane were tortured and martyred separately at the locations of the churches of their names. The remaining thirty-eight nuns were martyred at the location of Shoghakat. The name of the church refers to the ray of light that appeared during the martyrdom of the nuns. During the time that Hripsime was being tortured, Gayane had told her to "be of good cheer, and stand firm" in her faith. King Trdat was to be later converted to Christianity and made it the official religion of the kingdom.

Architecture

Earlier structures

At the site of the present day church of Shoghakat, there stood an earlier church of the 6th or 7th century which has not survived. It is believed that the structure standing at the site today possibly rests on the foundations of the earlier church (other sources say that Shoghakat may have been built upon the foundations of a 13th-century church). At the southwest end of the building, excavations uncovered the remains of a single-chamber church constructed on a stepped platform, thought to have been a 4th-century memorial

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common type ...

. At the southern wall is a small semi-circular

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an '' exedra''. ...

believed to have served as a southern

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cul ...

. The bases of the wall piers have features that are characteristic to 4th- and 5th-century Armenian churches. Two portals that led into the chapel were located as well, one to the south and one to the west.

Shoghakat Church

Shoghakat is a domed single-

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-typ ...

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 nam ...

with a semi-circular eastern apse flanked on either side by narrow chapels. Some portions of the apse wall could possibly date to the 5th century. Four

pendentive In architecture, a pendentive is a constructional device permitting the placing of a circular dome over a square room or of an elliptical dome over a rectangular room. The pendentives, which are triangular segments of a sphere, taper to point ...

s help make the transition from the square central

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a na ...

to the octagonal

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 ...

and

conical A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines c ...

dome above. As in some of the other medieval Armenian churches, the drum and dome are situated off-center and to the west. The main portal into the church leads into the interior from an open gallery adjacent to the western wall of the structure. A lengthy inscription is on the exterior

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of ...

above the door, and is offset by the orangish color of the

tufa Tufa is a variety of limestone formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of water in unheated rivers or lakes. Geothermally heated hot springs sometimes produce similar (but less porous) carbonate deposits, which are known as travertin ...

used. Another smaller portal is at the southern wall. Very little ornamentation adorns the main body of the church except for a geometric pattern that is around the mid-portion of the exterior of the drum, some khachkars built into the upper walls, and a geometric cross design at the exterior of the eastern wall with rosettes and two small cross shaped windows that let some light into the apse of the church. At the western end of the structure is a vaulted open gallery constructed simultaneously with the church. A single large arched opening centered in the middle of the front façade leads into the gallery, where directly across from it is the main portal to the church. Open arched windows are located to either side of the arch on the western wall as well as the walls north and south. The frames surrounding the windows and the large arched entry are highly ornamented with geometric patterns, rosettes, and

khachkar A ''khachkar'', also known as a ''khatchkar'' or Armenian cross-stone ( hy, խաչքար, , խաչ xačʿ "cross" + քար kʿar "stone") is a carved, memorial stele bearing a cross, and often with additional motifs such as rosettes, in ...

s. Centered above the gallery is a

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, f ...

supported by six-columns that serves as the church's belfry. Foliage patterns adorn each of the six upper exterior of corners of the cupola.

Gallery

Image:Shoghakat.jpg, Shoghakat Church, May 2008. Image:Shoghakat Drum and Dome.JPG, The drum, dome, and belfry of the church. Image:Shoghakat Belltower interior.JPG, View of the belfry interior Image:Shoghakat Entry.JPG, Covered portico Image:Shoghakat indoor.jpg, Interior of the church Image:Shoxakat church 43.JPG, Dome interior Image:Map of Etchmiadzin.gif, Map: Churches at Etchmiadzin.

References

Bibliography

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External links

Saint Shoghakat Church

Armeniapedia.org: Shoghakat Church
{{Protected Areas of Armenia Buildings and structures in Armavir Province Christian monasteries in Armenia Oriental Orthodox congregations established in the 13th century Tourist attractions in Armavir Province World Heritage Sites in Armenia