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Akhtamar Monastery

 
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Under King Gagik's rule Van did not remain the capital for long; Vostan soon substitutes it, not far from Lake Van (altitude 1720 m.). Almost in front of it is the island of Akhtamar. The new capital is encircled by numerous towers and ponderous walls, but of them, as of its most beautiful palaces and of the church of. S. Astvatzatzin, not a trace remains, following disastrous destruction during the XV century. Vostan, owing to its position is not easily defendable: that is why the capital was changed to the island of Akhtamar (Lake of the vishap = dragons) well defended by the waters of the lake.

The island from the IV century presents a fortified complex, where the rulers of the locality, the Rshtouni, took shelter in case of necessity. It was also used as a slave-clearing centre. At the end of the IX century various areas were recovered by means of dams and successively filled in, the building industry was mobilized and the task was assigned to an architect called Manuel. He became responsible for all the constructions while an enormous quantities of stone (pumice stone, volcanic rock) were transported from the mainland to the island, in particular from the fortress of Kotom (south-west of the lake of, Van), raised to the ground by King Gagik. In a short time the island became a true fortified city, and successively developed as the royal residential nucleus. During the XI-XII centuries it becomes a monastery and residential centre of the Catholicos of the Vaspourakan region. Akhtamar becomes seat and capital of the Artzrouni, flourishing and prosperous, full of palaces, among which is the residential palace of king Gagik, quarters for the royal guard and the court, with a school, a church, public and private offices, stores and a prison. With the exception of the church of the Holy Cross, nothing remains of the sumptuous royal palace of Gagik or the minor buildings (the state treasury, the armoury and stores), nearly all the work of Manuel.

The church of the Holy Cross at Akhtamar belongs to the large family of central-plan buildings which for entire centuries represented, with numerous interpretations and elaborations, the privileged form in which sacred architecture was expressed everywhere; in particular in the East and more specifically in Armenia where it richly flowered from the VI century onwards. From the primitive complex at Avan (VI-VII centuries) one passes to the form of the church of S. Hripsime at Vagharshapat (a tetra-cone with four apses each placed on the main axes, four niches on the diagonal axes and four rooms, one on each corner), which was to become in a certain sense the reference model for this type of building: Targmantchats in Aygeshat, S. John of Sisian, Garnahovit at Adiaman, Aramous, Aloutchalou and finally S. Etchmiadzin of Soradir. The latter was undoubtedly the model for Architect Manuel who built the church of the Holy Cross at Akhtamar.

It should be noted that, even though this church relates unmistakably to the others, it is also without a doubt that it is the force with which the church at Akhtamar stands out among these examples for the singularity of its' plastic form that makes it really "unique" in the whole history of Art, and not only of Armenian Art.

The novelty lies in the knowledge with which the architect, having abandoned the rigid traditional control of the external volume which characterized all Armenian architecture, succeeds in making the stones speak for themselves by restoring their expressive quality. The entire external decorative apparatus ceases to be such, by becoming the protagonist of a more encompassing architectural scheme where the languages of sculpture and architecture are harmoniously combined.

One enters the church by means of two entrances: one on the western side and the other on the southern side but today both these entrance are engulfed by buildings added in later centuries (the first entrance is covered by a gavit built in 1973 and the second entrance by a small doorway-bell tower built in the XIX century).

The plan is substantially a tetra-cone with four semi-circular apses, (the western and eastern apses are deeper) and four niches on the diagonals. From the two niches on the eastern side one has access to the chapels which flank the eastern apse of the church. The apses and the niches, internally terminate in semi-spherical calottes which, with relative pendatives, support the ring of the drum, the drum and the dome. The dome is internally hemispherical and externally conical which, with intentional insistence, recalls the forms of the extremely high surrounding peaks.

The long and narrow windows, through which the light filters, give life to the walls covered in frescoes; the light which enters through apertures in the drum illuminate the scene of the Creation painted on the dome.

The internal spatial rhythms are projected to the exterior by the articulated flowing of the facades. On the East facade and on the West facade two deep niches have been carved in order to create a precise chiaroscuro rhythm: both facades in fact have rather flat surfaces differing from the Southern and Northern facades which are articulated with high relieves. All the facades terminate with a tympanum, on which the low-relief figure of an evangelist is carved, which coherently formulates the sloping roofing on each arm of the cross. The fulcrum of the complex is the drum (rebuilt in the XIV century) richly decorated and surmounted by a cone which enclosed the dome. Of the monasterial complex of Akhtamar, other than the church of the Holy Cross (915-922), there are also a series of secondary buildings built in later centuries. Built on to the North-East side of the church, there is a small chapel or oratory, built perhaps by Katholikos Zaccaria (1296-1336): a barrel vault covers the internal space to which one has access through a door on the west side. A small doorway, also covered by a barrel vault, but built at a later date than the chapel, links it to the church of the Holy Cross. There is also a gavit (6, 7) built in 1763 on the western side of the church: a square space covered by a series of crossed vaulted arches with a bell-tower doorway built in the XIX century. A few meters from the complex, towards the South-East, there is a small chapel, today partly destroyed, dedicated to S. Stephen and erected by Catholicos Stephen HI (1272-1296) in 1293. One can deduce from the remains that it consisted of a single space in the form of an apse, covered by a barrel vault, with an entrance situated on the West side.

To the south of the church, right in front of the S. Stephen's chapel, there used to be a building, constructed in the XIX century and today completely destroyed which was used as the Catholicos' residence, the monks' cells, the library and other service facilities. Finally one should note the two small chapels, one dedicated to the Madonna and by now almost completely submerged, on the south-west side of the island while the other is on the south-east side. Instead two other chapels are completely destroyed, one dedicated to S. George while the other according to the legend was the oratory of queen Tamar. "Oh, beauty, carved in stone, between the fury and the cry of life, you stand still and silent, solitary and withdrawn, the Great one sits full of love at your feet, and whispers: "speak to me, speak to me, my love, speak to me my bride!" but your words are locked in the stone, oh motionless beauty!" (Rabindranath Tagore, Poems)

As a testimony of his fugitive existence, man brings life to stone, projecting on it a more or less defined unconscious meaning, his thoughts, his attitudes, or the most sublime intuitions of the spirit, making them an integral part of the revelation: the link between him and God.
Stone was widely used as a construction element in mediaeval times in Armenia in all sacred architectural expressions and to describe the architectural language as a prayer, used by man to glorify his eternity, and in the spatial continuity of the unification of sky and earth.
In mediaeval times the Armenian superimposed the "illuminated circle" (mandala) over the image of the cross, representing the four cardinal cosmic points, image of perfection, through which he succeeds in elaborating a series of theme variations to use in the designing of sacred buildings and also expressing a large range of aspects, ideas and emotions.

It is on this plan, imagined in the shape of a cross on which he builds the walls, covering this microcosm with the "gmbet" (dome), and putting himself at the centre, where kneeling on this "sacred centre" illuminated by the external light which converge here through appropriate openings, can contemplate the image of the resurrection and of the transformation of death to eternal life. Variations could be made by modelling the volume, the external surfaces and the internal space, covering the facades with high and low relieves; he succeeds in showing the continuity of religious man , cosmos in the architectural structure, creating a "house of God" for man, inserted and orientated according to his rhythms of life and places along his path.
The only example in the field of mediaeval Armenian sacred architecture, is the architect, sculptor called Manuel, builder of the complex at Akhtamar, who opposes the rigorous traditional logical instinct which guided the architectural style of the times. His mind tended towards the abstract and one opens oneself to a vision of the world based on relationships which reveal an existentialist need to discover what goes on behind the concrete sense, the pure concept, to find the hidden truth beyond the deceiving earth reality.

It is for this reason that the task of building a palatine church, as an on the island eventual seat of the Catholicos of the town of Akhtamar given to him by king Gagik, is the long awaited occasion to express himself, create his microcosm and tell the history of the Universe beginning from the Creation. He begins telling the story by carving on the exterior and painting frescoes on the interior of the building. Symbolism and abstraction are his most preferred instruments of narration: deciding to carve 153 figures in memory of the number of fish caught in miraculous fish tale. Manuel places the story of Genesis on the central part of the East facade, and he makes it into a central point where the story of humanity begins: Adam and Eve who embody birth, happiness and disaster, the nude body is pure in its humanity; the tree, the symbol of knowledge; the apple, the symbol of evil (mela = malum); and the seducing sin is represented by a serpent with four legs. On the West facade he carves King Gagik in the act of donation next to Jesus Christ while he accentuates the sacred character of the scene by the presence of two Seraphims, two angels, and by the Guardian angel; Jesus Christ has smaller dimensions than those of the king, whose halo around his head equally confirms the divine character attributed to him by the mediaeval tradition. On the East facade Manuel continues the theme of the Creation, he tells how Adam gave the name to the animals and describes the evangelization of the country and of the whole world: under the figure of Adam a king (perhaps Gagik) is flanked by two nobles in the elevation of the lime , a fundamental mystery of the process of intuition ,, while seven angels, including the archangels Gabriel and Michel, are placed in different parts of the monument to suggest the resurrection: "... and seven angel who had seven trumpets began to play them..." (Apocalypse VIII:6). The saints Theodore, George and Sergius are engaged in a battle between the cosmic forces of evil, represented in forms of dragons, panthers etc.

The slender but illuminated force of David overpowers that of the gigantic Goliath, Jonah returns to rest after having liberated himself from the sea-monster, Samson kills and wins again, and so on. Numerous personages and their stories, always referred to as strong men or a man-God who destroys the forces of evil and liberates his own people from destruction or death, nearly always surrounded by halos which represent the cosmos with its relationship to the Divine force.
Manuel covers his scenes everywhere with animal figures, often, like a lion, the ox and the eagle, suggesting the symbol of the saints Mark, Luke, and John, however always seen in function with their universal and transcending essence. Nearly all the animals, both domestic and wild are represented: the lion on its own, symbol of pure strength, or in pairs, symbol of totality; the dog, being a noble animal, is the symbol of loyalty; rodents and fish, are symbols of depth; the birds, are symbols of the earthly existence as an intermediate passage towards immortality, and mystic animals, which sometimes symbolize the devil and at other times unite in a single body the symbolic significance of other animals, such as the serpent or the bird.

In the decorative bands he creates a rich repertoire of symbols taken from nature and preferred by the Christian tradition, however, mixed in with the traditional scenes of people, where the activities (are brought into evidence) particularly significant of the various classes which made up the Armenian mediaeval society. Manuel also continues the story in the interior of the church, where the frescoes of the southern apse tell us the history of the Annunciation and the Nativity, those on the West apse show the presentation of Christ at the temple, Joseph's dream, the flight from Egypt, the massacre of the innocents, the Baptism, the entry into Jerusalem, the bathing of the feet and Christ before Pilate, while those on the Northern apse we find the Crucifixion, the women at the Sepulchre of Christ and the apparition of Christ to Mary.

The dome, the drum and the East apse repeat in detail the Creation, while the frescoes of the minor apse under the balcony announce a second coming of Christ, encompassed by a solar wheel (symbol of totality); carved on the beam over the Southern entrance is a seal which becomes absolute when flanked, as nearly always, by representations of bunches of grapes and pomegranates, which recall Christ's sacrifice, donator of his own blood for the ransom of humanity, a symbolism always maintained and even nowadays essential in man's religious rites.

The Vaspourakan region and the Akhtamar monastery by Herman Vahramian
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