THE ANCIENT CITY OF VAGHARSHAPAT

 

Adopting Christianity before the rest of the world is a recognition Armenians guard zealously, so tied is this recognition to their natural history. All things considered, their rivalry with Georgia over this sacred recognition is surprisingly amicable.

What isn’t surprising is that among the most revered figures in Armenia is St. Hripsime, whose story goes back to the origins of Christianity in the country. As with most canonized martyrs, the story of Hripsime is based part on record and part on faith, but her significance to the nation’s identity cannot be overestimated.

According to text, Hripsime was a young Roman maiden who fled her homeland to escape the advances of Emperor Diocletian. Her flight took her to Armenia where she made a new home in the city of Vagharshapat. Her freedom was not to be long-lived, however, as her beauty now caught the eye of King Tiridates III. Once more she rejected the advances of the powerful, professing her devotion to God. In retaliation, Hripsime was tortured and executed by the king’s soldiers along with the other members of her community of holy virgins with the exception of one, Nune, who fled to Georgia where she would establish the Georgian Orthodox Church, come to be known as St. Nino, and became the case for Georgia’s claim as the first Christian nation. Armenia, however, argues that St. Hripsime’s martyrdom within its boundaries laid the groundwork of Christianity there first.

I leave such disputes to the clergy and nationalists. What I will say is that all visitors to Armenia, religious and otherwise, should visit Saint Hripsime Church in Vagharshapat. Within its 7th century walls lay a nation’s icon (literally, as the faithful flock here to see Saint Hripsime’s tombstone), a nation’s history and a nation’s pride. To visit Saint Hripsime Church is to visit a fundamental part of the country’s origin.

                                                               Saint Hripsime Church

                                                                   Saint Hripsime's Tomb

                                                     The stones used during the torturing and execution of the martyr.

Ironically, it is beneath this church, arguably the one most intricately tied to Armenia’s Christian identity, that artifacts dating from before the arrival of Christianity were dug up in the late 1950s. These Hellenistic ruins suggest a structure as grand as the Temple of Garni once stood where the Church now stands, adding to the relatively scarce remnants of pre-Christian cultures in Armenia.

Travelling further into Vagharshapat we came to Saint Gayane Church, named after the Roman virgin who led Hripsime and her community out of Rome, only to be martyred along with her flock when the orders of King Tiridates were defied. Like Saint Hripsime Church it was also bestowed with the title of World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

                                                                      Saint Gayane Church
                                             

Etchmiadzin Cathedral completes an unofficial trilogy of holy places marking the origins of Aremnia as a Christian state. After having ordered the torture and execution of Saint Hripsime, Saint Gayane and the remaining thirty-eight nuns in their group, King Tiridates would himself come to establish Christianity as the official religion of Armenia in the year 301 AD. Under his orders construction of the cathedral began, once more near the former site of a Pagan temple. Canonically, the cathedral is said to have been completed by 303 AD. Some historians argue, however, that given the material and expertise of the final structure and the lack of mention of such a monumental achievement in the writings of the historian Agathangelos from 306, it is likely that Etchmiadzin Cathedral was not completed until some twenty years after construction began. Nonetheless, it is one of the oldest cathedrals in the world though it did not earn its name until the 1400s, previous texts referring to it as “Cathedral of Vagharshapat”.

Despite overtaking former Pagan lands of worship, excavations in the mid-1950s this time unearthed not markers of earlier cultures but original pillars and an altar apse from the 4th century, sparking new debates about the structure’s earliest appearance. UNESCO would also bless this site in 2000.

                                                                     Etchmiadzin Cathedral
   
                                                               The bells of Etchmiadzin

                                                        The ceiling of Etchmiadzin Cathedral
                                                

We finished our day in Vagharshapat at Zvartnots Cathedral. In contrast to the other structures in the city, Zvartnots, though younger than Etchmiadzin by almost three-hundred years, exists now in ruins. It stood for over three-hundred years, surviving attacks by Arab armies and multiple fires before its collapse in the 10th century, most likely due to an earthquake. And yet, it is in this very state of ruins that Zvartnots Cathedral continues to fascinate visitors centuries after its collapse.

                                                  I stand within the ruins of Zvartnots Cathedral.                                    

In the early 20th century, architect and historian Toros Toramanian began studying the original designs and descriptions left behind by the ancient and from there was able to provide some of the earliest detailed models of what Zvartnots Cathedral may have looked like in its earliest days. The Church of St. Gregory in Turkey and Holy Trinity Church in Yerevan were both influenced by the design of Zvartnots, the former constructed between 1001 and 1005 and the latter in 2003, a testament to the enduring allure of Zvartnots Cathedral over the centuries.

 

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