Monastery · Haghpat, Alaverdi community, Lori
Haghpat Monastery
Հաղպատավանք · Haghpatavank · Haghbat
A 10th-century monastery founded by Queen Khosrovanush on a promontory above the Debed River in Lori, grouped around the Cathedral of Surb Nshan.
Where it is
41.0937, 44.7121
Why go
Haghpat belongs to the Monasteries of Haghpat and Sanahin World Heritage property, a pair that UNESCO describes as centres of learning under the Kiurikian dynasty. Inside the cathedral an apse fresco shows Christ Pantocrator. Around it stand a narthex, a scriptorium, a refectory, a free-standing three-storey bell tower of 1245 and chapel-tombs, and among the carved cross-stones is the Amenaprkich (All-Saviour) khachkar of 1273. Sanahin stands in plain view on the same plateau, across a ravine cut by a small river, so the two make one outing.
Near Haghpat Monastery
Fortress
Kayan Fortress
Ruined walls and towers on a hill at the edge of the Debed gorge between the monasteries of Haghpat and Sanahin, rebuilt in 1233 by Bishop Hovhannes of Haghpat.
1 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Monastery
Sanahin Monastery
Sanahin's 10th-century monastery in Lori's Alaverdi community, where a library building of 1063 and an academy hall stand among churches, gavits and khachkars.
4 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Monastery
Akhtala Monastery
A fortified monastery on high ground above Akhtala, bordered by rocky canyons on three sides, whose domed basilica of Saint Astvatsatsin preserves frescoes including a Last Judgment on its west wall.
8 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Church
Odzun Church
A domed basilica in the Lori village of Odzun, first built in the 6th century, with a separate early medieval memorial beside it where tall carved stelae stand in arched openings on a stepped plinth.
9 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ