Sourb Hovhannes Karapet Church :: ARMENIAN HISTORICAL MONUMENTS

Sourb Hovhannes Karapet Church

Georgia / Javakhk / Akhalkalak / Khertvis

Historical Introduction
1830 y․

References to the church of Sourb Hovhannes Karapet (John the Baptist) date from the 1830s. An available source attests that “the church overhaul of 1843” was implemented with the means of the sanctuary.

Հայաստանի ազգային դիվան, (National Archives of Armenia), ֆ. 53, ց. 1, գ. 3811, թ. 73-74։ Karapetian. Samvel, Javakhk, Yerevan, 2011, p. 231.

1878 y․

It closed in 1878 in the aftermath of the resettlement of Khertvis Armenians in other places.

Հայաստանի ազգային դիվան, (National Archives of Armenia), ֆ. 53, ց. 1, գ. 3850, թ. 206։ Karapetian. Samvel, Javakhk, Yerevan, 2011, p. 231.

Description
1910 y․

In 1910 this church, which had been standing stripped of its parish for already 30 years, was described as follows: “Firstly, there are absolutely no Armenians or representatives of any other nationality: it comprises only 400 Turkish houses. The Armenians abandoned their homes more than thirty years ago, and now only their derelict church stands here. It is built of common stone and mud, and has an earthen roof, which has been destroyed in the part in front of the main apse ...its remaining parts will collapse in winter. In the upper sections of the walls, the stones have moved away from each other for about two arshins, which can be dangerous for life, as the Turkish children generally play here. The church has a narthex, in the east of which, the Turks’ houses are situated. They have purchased these dwellings, which are twenty arshins wide, from the Armenians. In the west, some open space—twelve arshins long and twenty arshins wide (its dimensions are equal to those of the facade of Apas’s booth)—stretches from the church door to the street. In the south stand Apas Bozbyakov’s double-floor house and booth, whose length amounts to twenty-eight ...arshins. This Apas has erected one of the walls of his house on the church land, occupying 11/4 arshins of it. The balcony of the upper storey of his house overlooks the church yard; moreover, he has appropriated the territory from the church wall to that of his booth and has covered it with boards. He has also placed a door leading to his house (its width is four and a half arshins (41/2). This issue is to be treated and settled by the proper bodies. Apas, who is a Turk in origin, declares that he is ready to buy that plot of land or even the entire church with its yard if they are sold to him. In the north, there is another piece of land which is twenty-eight arshins long and 41/2 arshins wide. Secondly, the church does not possess any real estate— neither houses nor booths or gardens. [Its property comprises] a movable copper censer, two small candelabra of the same metal, as well as two icons representing the Holy Virgin which are placed in the bema...” In the subsequent years, the spiritual authorities focused their attention only on the property of the sanctuary. The archive documents of later periods keep silence about the church of Sourb Hovhannes Karapet.