Sourb Hreshtakapetats (Holy Archangels’) Church :: ARMENIAN HISTORICAL MONUMENTS

Sourb Hreshtakapetats (Holy Archangels’) Church

Georgia / Javakhk / Akhalkalak / Jgrashen

Historical Introduction
1850 y․

Beginning with the 1850s, a number of archive documents mention Jgrashen’s church of Sourb Hreshtakapetats (Holy Archangels’).

Karapetian. Samvel, Javakhk, Yerevan, 2011, p. 427.

Description

It represents a “stone-built” monument “of a wooden roof”76 resting on 4 pairs of wooden pillars. The northern wall of the sanctuary, which has a single entrance opening from its western facade, retains a font. As of 2006, it was preserved standing, although it was in a state of dilapidation.

«Արձագանք», 1885, N 3, էջ 41: Karapetian. Samvel, Javakhk, Yerevan, 2011, p. 427.

As alleged by I. Rostomashvili, the church of Jgrashen primarily used to be a Georgian sanctuary and only later turned into an Armenian one.

Karapetian. Samvel, Javakhk, Yerevan, 2011, p. 427.

Inscription, Georgian Mesropian, Embossed, Commemoration

According to I. Rostomashvili, only the beginning of a finely-carved embossed inscription was preserved on the cornice of the southern wall of the church, while the rest of it could not be seen at all:
ქ(რისტ)ე, შ(ეი)წყ(ა)ლ(ე)ნ მშ(ო)ბ(ე)ლნი... / կամ მ(ა)შ(ენე)ბ(ე)ლნი... Transl.: Christ, may You have mercy upon the parents... / builders...

Published in: Ростомов И., Ахалкалакский уезд в археологическом отношении.– Сборник Материалов для Описания Местностей и Племен Кавказа, вып. XXV, 1898, стр. 54. ცისკარიშვილი ვ., ჯავახეთის ეპიგრაფიკა როგორც საისტორიო წყარო, თბილისი, 1959, էջ 124-125: Karapetian. Samvel, Javakhk, Yerevan, 2011, p. 427. Note: E. Taghayshvili, who visited Jgrashen about a decade later, attests that the western facade of the church was totally collapsed, and no inscriptions could be seen there.

Type Copied Lapidary Inscription
View Exterior
Author Samvel Karapetyan
Source Non-Specified

Type Photo
View Partial view
Direction From the south-west
Author Samvel Karapetyan
Source Black-and-white negative
Date 1988 — 1989 yy․

Type Photo
View Partial view
Direction From the north-east
Author Samvel Karapetyan
Source Black-and-white negative
Date 1988 — 1989 yy․

Type Measurement
View Exterior
Author Samvel Karapetyan
Source Sketch