One also experiences this expansion of scale inside Armenian churches. Strzygowski writes: "The inside of Armenian buildings can be used as a school example for the art of impressing the viewer and making him rethink, and it is obvious that this impression is not achieved through decoration or decorative styles, but by the creation of clusters, volume and the art of using the space, with consideration to the alteration of bright and shady spots." 136
The aspects of originality in Armenian architecture during this period has provoked great interest and admiration among many art historians. Dalton writes: "There is no doubt about that the Armenians were an intellectual and artistic people, both in their way of thinking and their culture, but also within art. Their architecture is conspicuous and admirable in its strength and conception and use of space, but also in regard to its original forms." 137
Eberselt also expresses the following: "Despite the suffering and the pressure which the Armenians had to live through, they were able to create an original and spectacular architecture, an art which one can truly call national. Their buildings, with their characteristic order and structure, are magnificent. They move you with their dimensions and leave a strong feeling of power, strength and grandeur in your heart." 138
In his turn, Charles Diehl writes: "There are conspicuous lines in these buildings. The dome has a special appearance from the outside. On the cylindrical part of the building, which often is a polygon and relatively high, there is a roof in the shape of a pyramid which conceals the dome and rises as a tower in the middle of the building. The apses show no convexities on the exterior of the building and are distinguished almost exclusively by the deep triangle-formed narrow openings which are cut into the walls. In the inside they have used a deep arch with edges which are square-shaped, or ordinary columns. The decorations of the outer walls are not less awe-inspiring than the interior and are ornamented with high and small roof-columns. They are covered with helix-shaped carvings. Finally it is clear that they have exclusively used cut stones. The high and cone-shaped roofs are covered with limestone-like tiles." 139
Diehl comes to the conclusion that these churches, with their expansive space and vertical and high lines, are more evocative of the buildings in the Western Roman Empire than those in the Eastern Roman Empire, in other words, Byzantine.
It appears that Strzygowski agrees with these observations, and relies on the same research in pointing out the fact that Roman architecture, with its striking characteristics such as crescent-roofs and columns, emerged first during the 11th century in the western world, and therefore the Armenians, through their knowledge, consultation and participation, have played an important role in the introduction and the inspiration of this Eastern Roman art form, an art form which brought to an end the style which had been predominant in Western Europe from the 6th to the 11th centuries. 140
Incidentally, the 11th century witnesses the first emigration en masse of the Armenians, not only towards Asia Minor, but also towards Europe, a movement caused by the victory of the Turanians over Armenia.
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