NOR (NEW) VARAG MONASTERY
Location. The monastery is situated on a wooded south-east-facing mountain slope on the left bank of the river Hakhum, 1.5 km west of Varagavan Village, Tavush Region, Republic of Armenia (Tuchkatak (called Tavush in the Middle Ages) District, Utik Province, Armenia Maior), at an altitude of 1,079 metres (N 40°57´39.36´´; E 045°19´41.04´´) above sea level.
Name. The first religious building in the site of the present-day monastic complex was founded in the late 12th century and called Anapat (Cloister), but over three decades later, when the famous Holy Cross (Avag Sourb Nshan) of Varag Monastery, located in Vaspurakan, was moved to this sanctuary, it was renamed Nor (New) Varag Monastery. This event is commemorated in a 9-line inscription carved on the northern wall of Sourb Nshan Church, according to which, during the Mongol-Tatar invasions, the prior of Vaspurakan’s Varag Monastery, Ghukas, took the main cross and ran away to the north. Wandering here and there for 6 years, in 1237 he reached “...Christ-loving Prince Vasak in Norberd and the holy monastery called Anapat.” Seeing the “...beautiful church,” he left the Holy Cross there.
The monastic complex consists of Anapat (Sourb Astvatzatzin) and Sourb Nshan Churches, a chapel, 2 narthexes and two double-floor burial vaults. It also used to be surrounded with walls and had at least three cemeteries.
A Historical Introduction. The oldest church of the monastery, Anapat, was founded by Prince David of Norberd in 1198. In 1237 his son Vasak erected the domed church of Sourb Nshan.
Varag Monastery retains about 60 lapidary inscriptions, mostly commemorating acts of donation, 13 of which are dated (1198, 1200, 1208, 1219, 1230 (2 inscriptions), 1231, 1235, 1237, 1253, 1261, 1620 and 1659).
Anapat (Sourb Astvatzatzin) Church, which stands in the south-east of the monastic complex, represents a uni-nave building. According to a 9-line inscription carved on the tympanum of its western entrance, it was built in 1198 by Prince David of Norberd, who was Vasak I’s son and King Kyurike Bagratid II’s grandchild. The patron also committed himself to satisfying the economic needs of the newly-founded church and donated a number of profitable estates to it, including Tandzek, Hezerget, Drakhtenkuyz, a mill, a garden named Bain, the lands lying in the area between the mill of Hamdin and a wood of nut-trees called Kharbi.
The western wall of the monument also bears another inscription which tells us the name of the person who fetched stones during the construction of the church, Hazardegh.
Ա(ստուա)ծ ողորմի Հազար|դեղին, որ զքարս կրեաց, | ամէն:
Transl.: May God have mercy on Hazardegh, who brought stones. Amen.
Anapat is a church of two apses with a vaulted ceiling lying beneath a gable roof. Two ornate cross-stones decorate both sides of its western portal. The eastern facade is adorned with an ornamental band comprising reliefs of animals, plants and geometrical patterns. The double-apse composition of the church is something rare in Armenian architecture, being found in the following monuments: Sanahin’s Sourb Harutiun (Holy Resurrection) and Herher’s Sourb Zion (13th century) Churches; both churches of Yeghish Arakyal (Jerveshtik) Monastery (13th century) as well as the churches of Kaghbi Village (14th century) in Shatakh and Ishkhanigom Village (14th century) in Hayots Dzor.
The roof of Anapat Church is in ruins.
The two-floor family vault, which adjoins Anapat in the north, was built by the founder of this church, David Bagratid, in 1200. A single-line inscription, engraved in the form of an arch on the tympanum of its western entrance, commemorates this event.
The first storey of this funerary structure comprises a vaulted chapel of a rectangular plan (3.50 x 2.30 metres) which is surmounted by a dome having a cylindrical tambour both inwardly and outwardly and ending with a conical spire. The dome itself forms the second floor, the only vestiges of which are the remnants of its lower stonework. The entrances of both floors open from their western facades. In the south, the vault of the first floor rests on an arch having a width of a metre: it looks like a niche as it abuts on Anapat Church.
There is a double-floor chapel adjoining Anapat Church in the south. It shares the composition of the aforementioned double-floor family vault with the only difference that it is larger in dimensions (4.50 x 3.20 metres).
Access to the second floors of both the vault and chapel was possible by means of a movable ladder.
Anapat Church of New Varag Monastery, with the two adjacent double-floor funerary chapels, has its prototype in Horomos Monastery.
Sourb Nshan, which is the main church of the monastery, adjoins the double-floor family vault in the south. As reported by a 12-line inscription engraved on the tympanum of its western entrance, it was built by David’s son Vasak II from 1224 until 1237.
The architect of the church was Gazan from Ani, who left the following words of commemoration on the ceiling of its sanctuary:
Անեցի | վարդպետ Գազան:
Transl.: Architect Gazan from Ani.
Sourb Nshan represents a central-domed structure which is rectangular outwardly and cruciform inwardly, with two-floor vestries in its four corners (exterior dimensions: 10.25 x 15.40 metres). It has a lofty cylindrical tambour beneath its pointed conical spire. Entrance to the second storey of the vestries is realised by means of steps which are supported by consoles and enriched with stalactites. It has two portals opening from its western and southern facades. The western one is especially remarkable for its architectural and artistic splendour: it represents a mosaic formed of rhombic and hexagonal stones of dark violet as well as cruciform ones of light blue, its lower rows being adorned with geometrical reliefs, while the upper sections are enriched with animal and plant reliefs.
The large narthex, which adjoins Sourb Astvatzatzin in the west, was built by Hovhannes Tuetsy (1237 to 1261) when he was the Father Superior of the monastery. Its northern and partly western facades abut on the rocks. It had a square plan (about 14 x 14 metres), its roof being borne by two pairs of intersecting arches which rested on eight wall pylons without pillars. The principal entrance of the narthex opened from the western edge of the southern facade, but it also had another entrance of secondary significance, which opened from the northern boundary of the eastern facade.
Inside this narthex is placed an ornate cross-stone of 1620, the work of Priest Vardan, which is adorned with remarkable reliefs.
At present the roof of the monument is entirely destroyed.
The small narthex, which was erected in the second quarter of the 14th century, adjoins Sourb Nshan in the south as well as Anapat Church and the double-floor buildings in the west.
It used to represent a structure (8 x 11 metres) of a rectangular plan, probably, with two columns. Its remnants include its western wall and part of the lower sculptured cornice of the yerdik adjoining it.
Chapels. South-west and north-west of New Varag Monastery, not far from it, two uni-nave chapels are preserved, the northwestern one being surrounded with a cemetery which retains a cross-stone of 1659 sculpted by a certain Khachatur.
Waterworks. The monastic complex used to have a system of water supply which was built by a certain Shara in 1253. This event is commemorated in an inscription engraved on a cross-stone:
Ի թվին ՉԲ (1253), ա(ստուա)ծ ող|որմի Շառա, որ | ջուր բե(րեց):
Transl.: In the year 702 (1253). May God have mercy upon Shara, who brought water.
