Vahanavank Monastery :: ARMENIAN HISTORICAL MONUMENTS

Vahanavank Monastery 11 c․

Georgia / Javakhk / Aspindza

Location

This complex of caves, which is very difficult of access, is situated on the right bank of the river Kur (down the course of this river from the monastic complex of Vardzunik), 30 kilometres south of Aspindza.

Karapetian. Samvel, Javakhk, Yerevan, 2011, p. 464.

Historical Introduction
11 — 13 cc․

The available written sources keep silence about the history of the monastery of Vahan, which is in a semi-destroyed state at present. As legend has it, it was built in the late 11th century and was later totally ruined together with Tmogvi. This annihilation, however, did not impede the future functioning of Vahanavank, which is attested by an inscription preserved there. According to it, in 1204 Anton Jeghondidel-Metzignobartukhutses, who was the First Vizier of the king, built an enclosure for the monastery. This fact also comes to suggest that by 1204 it still formed part of the royal domains and had not been united with the estates of this or that great landowner. The situation changed when Tmogvi was included in the estates of the Yerkaynabazuk (the Long-Armed) to pass to their descendants by inheritance, together with Vahanavank, which was situated in the neighbourhood. With this respect, it should be mentioned that “one of the most important features of a large feudal domain is to have a family monastery.”

ვაჰანის ქვაბთა განგება, მუსხელიშვილი ლ-ის გამოცემა, 1939, էջ 9-10, 12, 17: გაბაშვილი ც., ვარძია, ”გზამკველი”, 1945, էջ 38: Karapetian. Samvel, Javakhk, Yerevan, 2011, pp. 464-465.

1204 — 1234 yy․

Between 1204 and 1234, Prince of Princes (erisTavT erisTavi) Sargis’s son Yerkaynabazuk-Tmogvetsy, who was now the new ruler of these lands, ratified the monastic statutes of Vahanavank.

ჟორდანია თ., ისტორიჳული საბჳუთები შიო-მღვიმის მონასტრისა, 1895: Karapetian. Samvel, Javakhk, Yerevan, 2011, p. 465.

14 c․

After the princely family of the Tmogvetsies had left Tmogvi in the first half of the 14th century, Vahanavank turned into a family monastery and started serving as a funerary church for the Gharibayisdzes.

Karapetian. Samvel, Javakhk, Yerevan, 2011, p. 465.

Description

This is a cluster of multi-row caves, which were called Vahani Karayrer, i.e. Caves of Vahan, until the second half of the 14th century, but are also known by the name of Vahani Vank, i.e. Monastery of Vahan (Vanis Kvabi). Among the most remarkable structures of the complex can be mentioned its hall churches, the utility rooms, as well as its principal cut-in-rock church, which is surmounted by a dome (in the 12th century, it underwent reconstruction by Gurgen’s son Ichkit). The other, partly preserved parts of the complex include a system of horizontal and almost vertical tunnels having steps, a small church which is only half carved in the rock (it was erected by the Metzignobartukhutses of Queen Thamar), as well as some clay pipes formerly used for the conveyance of water to the monastery from the Plateau of Javakhk. At first Vahanavank had exceptionally male inhabitants, but when it shifted into the Gharibayisdzes’ possession, women were allowed to have separate dwellings there. Later a small domed church was added onto one of the upper rows of the complex. The walls of this sanctuary are covered with inscriptions and paintings in black ink.

Karapetian. Samvel, Javakhk, Yerevan, 2011, p. 464.

Monuments

The monument cluster of Vahanavank consists of three churches.

Karapetian. Samvel, Javakhk, Erevan, 2011, p. 465.

Inscription, Georgian Mesropian, Engraved, Construction

A tympanum (132 x 38 x 30 centimetres), found in the territory of Vahanavank during the excavations carried out under G. Gaprindashvili’s leadership in 1965, bears a two-line inscription in the Georgian Mesropian script:
†. ესე არს სამ(კჳ)დრ(ე)ბ(ე)ლი ჩ(უე)ნ, გ(უ)რგ(ე)ნ(ა)თი. მე, იჩქითმ(ა)ნ აღვ(ა)შ(ე)ნე, შ(ემინდვ)ნ(ე)ს ღ(მერთმა)ნ. Transl.: This is the place of repose of the Gurgenians. I, Ichkit, built it. May God have mercy [upon me].

Published in: სილოგავა ვ., იჩქით გურგენისძის სამი წარწერა, ”ნერგი”, 17.10.1994: ტალახაძე ი., ვანის ქვაბთა მონასტრის პერსონოლოგიისათვის, ”ონომასტიკური ძიებანი”, ი, ახალციხე, 1995, էջ 71: სილოგავა ვ., სამცხე-ჯავახეთის ისტორიული მუზეუმის ქართული ეპიგრაფიკული ძეგლები, էջ 42, 97, 117, 132, photograph 20: Note: G. Gaprindashvili, who found this inscribed tympanum, confined himself to only publicizing his discovery and did not publish the inscription. He traces it back to the time-span between 1186 and 1191 (გაფრინდაშვილი გ., არქიტექტურულ-არქეოლოგიური ძიებანი ვანის ქვაბებში 1967 და 1968 წწ., “საქართველოს სახელმწიფო მუზეუმის არქეოლოგიური ექსპედიციები,” იი, თბილისი 1971, გვ. 109, 114). In 1986 the tympanum was taken to the Museum after Shota Rustaveli (Aspindza) on Vakhtang Gurgenidze’s initiative. V. Silogava attributes the inscription to the late 12th century.

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

Type Photo
View General
Author Samvel Karapetyan
Source Colour Negative
Date 1998 y․

Type Photo
View Exterior
Author Samvel Karapetyan
Source Colour Negative
Date 1998 y․

Name	Year/Century	Etymology
Vahani vank
Vanis Kvabi