Monastery · Sevan, Sevan community, Gegharkunik
Sevanavank
Սևանավանք · Sevan Monastery
Two small cross-plan churches, Surb Arakelots and Surb Astvatsatsin, on a peninsula at Lake Sevan's north-western shore that was an island until Soviet-era draining lowered the lake by about 20 metres.
Where it is
40.5639, 45.0108
Why go
An inscription dates the monastery's founding to 874 under Princess Mariam, daughter of Ashot I. A short climb from the shore leads to the two churches, which are very alike, and beside them the ruin of a gavit whose roof once rested on six wooden columns. Easy road access from the town of Sevan makes this one of the busier stops at the lake, and the monastery still runs a seminary in newer buildings on the peninsula's northern shore. Hayravank, along the south-western shore, is a quieter counterpart.
Base yourself nearby
Lake Town
Sevan
Sevan is the town and shoreline on Armenia's great high-altitude lake, sitting at roughly 1,900 metres where the water stays cold, the wind is constant and the light is unlike anywhere else in the country. It is the base for the Sevanavank monastery on its peninsula, the medieval khachkar field at Noratus, and a short but genuine summer swimming season.
Mountain Town
Dilijan
Dilijan is a forested mountain town in Tavush, surrounded by a national park of over 240 square kilometres of beech and oak woodland, with a restored nineteenth-century craft street, walking trails into the hills, and the monasteries of Haghartsin and Goshavank in wooded settings nearby. It is Armenia's main slow-travel base and a complete climatic contrast to the dry plain around Yerevan.
Near Sevanavank
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.
16 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Monastery
Hayravank Monastery
On a rocky cliff above Lake Sevan's south-western shore, Hayravank groups a late 9th-century church, a 10th-century chapel and a 12th-century gavit among khachkars and old gravestones.
17 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.
18 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Museum
Orbeli Brothers House-Museum
Levon Orbeli's birthplace in Tsaghkadzor, turned into a house-museum in 1972 for him and his brothers Ruben and Hovsep, three scientists of the Soviet era who were born in the town.
25 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ