Monastery · Dilijan community, Tavush
Haghartsin Monastery
Հաղարծնի վանք
A monastery of local limestone in the forests of Dilijan National Park, with three churches raised between the tenth and thirteenth centuries and an architecturally rare thirteenth-century refectory.
Where it is
40.8018, 44.8907
Why go
The churches are dedicated to St Gregory, St Stepanos and St Astvatsatsin, and carved khachkars stand around the complex. Give the refectory time: dated 1248, it is split by pillars into two square halls roofed with intersecting arches. On the east façade of St Astvatsatsin, a relief shows two figures in monks' robes pointing to a model of the church. The approach from Dilijan runs through forest with picnic spots and walking paths, and Haghartsin pairs naturally with Goshavank, the other major monastery near town.
Near Haghartsin Monastery
Monastery
Jukhtak Vank
Named for its pair of churches (jukht means pair in Armenian), this monastery stands in a forest clearing in Dilijan National Park on the outskirts of Dilijan.
9 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Monastery
Matosavank
A small monastery completed in 1247 in the forest just west of Dilijan, partly reclaimed by vegetation and reached on foot along the Medieval Monasteries Trail together with Jukhtak Vank.
9 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Monastery
Goshavank
A monastery in the village of Gosh, east of Dilijan, rebuilt under the scholar and lawgiver Mkhitar Gosh and famous for a thirteenth-century khachkar carved by the master Poghos.
12 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Church
St Thaddeus Church, Ddmashen
Ddmashen's 7th-century church of St Thaddeus the Apostle, a large cruciform church on a rectangular plan whose dome now rests on a sixteen-sided drum rebuilt in 1907 after earthquake damage.
26 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ