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

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

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

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

in 1938.

History

Pashavank was founded in the 14th century by the grandsons of Baron Umek who arrived in Tbilisi from Karin (

Erzerum Erzurum (; ) is a city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. It is the site of ancient Theodosiopolis. T ...

) 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.

John Buchan Telfer John Buchan Telfer (1830 – 1907) was a British Captain in the Royal Navy and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London since 1875. He who took part in the Crimean War (1853–56) and was awarded the Baltic Medal. He also served on many nav ...

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 Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called '' courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by ...

, 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 (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

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, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

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 ...

s were

dodecagon In geometry, a dodecagon, or 12-gon, is any twelve-sided polygon. Regular dodecagon A regular polygon, 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 ...

al, with twelve long windows located under

blind arch A blind arch is an arch found in the wall of a building that has been infilled with solid construction and so cannot serve as a passageway, door or window.''A Dictionary of Architecture''; Fleming, John; Honour, Hugh & Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966) ...

es topped by horizontal molding and a row of decorative

brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

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 File:Сохранившаяся колокольня разрушенного армянского монастыря 15.jpg File:Tbilisi Vank bell tower-2.jpg File:Сохранившаяся колокольня разрушенного армянского монастыря 08.jpg, Bell tower inscription

References

{{Armenian Churches Destroyed Armenian churches in Georgia (country) Old Tbilisi Armenian Apostolic churches in Tbilisi Armenian Apostolic cathedrals in Georgia (country)

History

Architecture

Gallery

See also

References