SAINT ASTVATSATSIN CHURCH OF KOT OR KOTAVANQ
Region Gegharquniq
Village Nerqin Getashen
state index 4.66.7
It was located on the western bank in Nerqin Getashen village of Martuni region of RA.
The church was built by Grigor Supan II- the master of Gegharquniq, son of the prince Vasak Gabur and Mariam Bagratuni, in 851-901.
Outwardly it is rectangular, inwardly 3 niches, with vaulted rectangular cross-wing from the west and has two stored vestries in four corners (the upstairs were caches) it is a domed structure. The entrances of the eastern vestries were built with the northern and southern apses and the entrances of the western vestries –with rectangular cross -wings. On the eastern facade there are two “Armenian niches” of triangular cut.
It was built from roughly hewn and fractured basalt, some joining parts were built from huge smoothly hewn stones.
The entrances are from the west and south, they have walled yard built according to the inscription before the church. It shows that there was a monument before the foundation of the mentioned church. There are monastical cells and the ruins of other buildings. The dome and roofs are destroyed.
Inside the entrance of the south-eastern vestry, is standing a cross stone of the first half of 9th century instead of tympanum, devoted to the memory of Vardan Mamikonyan. On 2 sides of the horizontal wings of the cross is written: SAINT VARDAN NAHATAK QI.
There was an expanded constructional inscription which was achieved us by Steqan Orbelyan.
The plan was one of the achievements of the architectural school of Syuniq.
At the end of 1980’s the restoration of the church was undertaken and started by the general department of the protection and utilization of the monuments. The walls and some part of the dome were reconstructed, however the activities were suspended from 1990.
The main literature:
S. Barkhudaryan, Archive of Armenian lithography, chap 4, Yerevan, 1973 (In Armenian).
The monuments of Medieval Armenia. The cross stones of IX-XIII centuries, Yerevan,1984 (In Armenian).
S. Orbelyan, The History of Armenia, Yerevan, 1986 (In Armenian).
S. Mnacakanyan, The Armenian Architecture School of Syuniq, Yerevan, 1960 (In Armenian).
