Kilda Village Site :: ARMENIAN HISTORICAL MONUMENTS

Kilda Village Site

Georgia / Javakhk / Akhalkalak / Chunchkha

Location

In a smooth area at the edge of a gorge extending on the right bank of the river Kur, about 5 kilometres south-west of Chunchkha, 11 kilometres north-west of Akhalkalak in a straight line, at an altitude of 1,680 to 1,700 metres above sea level is preserved a village site known by the name of Kilda.

Karapetian. Samvel, Javakhk, Yerevan, 2011, p. 422.

Historical Introduction
1595 y․

The well-known Turkish tax list of 1595 mentions this once existing village as comprising 8 houses and paying 14,500 akches to the State Treasury. It is noteworthy that the same source subsequently mentions the purely Georgian-inhabited village of Kilda as having a mixed population of Armenians and Georgians (Khachatur’s and his son’s families were undoubtedly of Armenian origin).

”გურჯისტანის ვილაიეთის დიდი დავთარი”, էջ 218: Karapetian. Samvel, Javakhk, Yerevan, 2011, p. 422.

1899 — 1900 yy․

The Ad Hoc Governmental Committee, established after the natural disaster caused by the cereal leaf and Hottentot beetles (1899 to 1900), ranked Kilda among the most seriously-stricken villages of Javakhk. According to its calculations, 9 of the local houses (with 50 inhabitants) were in bad need of immediate relief and support.

Սալլիւմեան, Անբերրիութիւնը Ախալքալաքի գաւառում եւ նրա հետեւանքները, «Մուրճ», 1901, N 6, էջ 248-249: Karapetian. Samvel, Javakhk, Yerevan, 2011, p. 422.

Population
1914 y․

In 1914 Kilda represented a purely Georgian village with 602 souls.

“Кавказский календарь на 1915 г.”, Тифлис, 1914, стр. 141. Karapetian. Samvel, Javakhk, Yerevan, 2011, p. 422.

1944 y․

In the Soviet years, it was stripped of its residents. After 1944 40 of the local families resettled in Hokam.

Karapetian. Samvel, Javakhk, Yerevan, 2011, p. 422.

Monuments

The present-day village site retains a church and a ruined graveyard.