SHEKHMURAD

Location. The monastery is situated on a wooded gorge slope extending on the left bank of the river Hakhum, 4 km south-west of Tzaghkavan Village of the present-day Republic of Armenia in a straight line (Tuchkatak (Tuz Kutak) District, Utik Province, Armenia Maior), at an altitude of 960 metres above sea level (N 40°54´49.26´´; E 45°18´02.10´´).

The Name Origin. It takes its name from a nearby village site, but Makar Barkhudariants thinks that it might have been called Getakits.

A Historical Introduction. There exist no historiographical records regarding the monastery. Kirakos Gandzaketsy makes some passing reference to Getakits Monastery, but there are no comprehensive grounds to identify these two sanctuaries. Some information relating to Shekhmurad is found in its lapidary inscriptions, 16 in number, which mostly commemorate certain acts of donation and trace back to the period between the 12th and 17th centuries. Only 4 of these inscriptions are dated (1148/9, 1248, 1264 & 1619), the oldest of them (it marks the construction of Khoranik, one of the monastic churches) being particularly noteworthy: its date is written according to the calendar of Deacon Hovhannes, which requires adding not 551, but 1083/4 to the year mentioned in the given text.

An Architectural Description. The oldest church of the monastery is Khoranik, in the north-west of which Sourb Astvatzatzin (Holy Virgin) was later built. There is also a narthex serving both the churches.

Khoranik represents a uni-nave vaulted basilica (exterior dimensions: 5.15 x 3.60 metres) with a horseshoe-shaped sanctuary. It has only one entrance opening from its western facade. A finely-dressed stone, set a little above its tympanum, bears an 8-line inscription, which commemorates the construction of the church in 1149 on the order of Prince Sadun and with the efforts of Father Grigor.

The monument is built of undressed stone and mortar. Its western and northern walls are preserved standing, whereas its roof as well as its southern and eastern facades are entirely in ruins.

Sourb Astvatzatzin (Holy Virgin) Church. Chronologically, this is the second building of the monastic complex and traces back to 1248, but it is its main church. It is built of entirely finely-finished yellowish brown felsite and represents a structure which is rectangular outwardly and cruciform and domed inwardly (exterior dimensions: 8.50 x 7.0 metres). In the east, the semi-circular sanctuary is found with double-floor vestries on either side (their entrances open from the west). Each of them has a semi-circular sanctuary on the first floor, while access to the second storey is from the church sanctuary. The arches, resting on the angular wall pylons of the sanctuary and on the western ones, bear the weight of the circular dome, which ends with a pointed spire. The church is illuminated by means of 8 windows widening inwardly, one opening from each of the church and dome facades. Its entrances open from its southern and western facades into the adjoining narthexes. The front of the bema is decorated with crosses enclosed within a sculptured frame.

The stones of the dome spire and those of the upper masonry of the tambour revetment have fallen.

The larger narthex (exterior dimensions: 10.30 x 10.30 metres) adjoins the main church of the monastery from the west. It has a square plan, which is generally typical of double-pillar narthexes. Its two octahedral pillars and two pilasters, adjoining its eastern wall, bear the four-sided roof, which has a yerdik (an opening in the ceilings of Armenian houses for illumination and smoke removal). The aisles of the narthex are vaulted. Its main entrance opens from the westernmost part of its southern facade.

As for the stones used in the construction of this narthex (together with mortar), they are finely-dressed in the structurally more important parts (such as the columns, pilasters, vault-bearing arches and the yerdik revetment) and undressed in its interior and exterior walls.

At present the upper sections of the yerdik masonry and its northern vault are in ruins.

The smaller narthex (exterior dimensions: 7.0 x 7.0 metres) adjoins Khoranik in the west and Sourb Astvatzatzin Church in the south. It was erected without any pillars after 1248, probably, in the second half of the 13th century. Inwardly, it preserves its four wall pylons, which used to bear the arches forming the roof. The entrance of the narthex, which had a square plan, presumably opened from the west.

This narthex and the main church of the monastery were built of the same type of stone.

Only the southern, eastern and western walls of the narthex are preserved in a semi-ruined state.

The cemetery extending around the monastery of Shekhmurad used to retain a great number of cross-stones: some of them were set in the walls of Sourb Astvatzatzin Church during its construction, while others were damaged in the course of time and brought within the walls of the monastic structures for preservation. Among these, mention can be made of the broken piece of a cross-stone created by a certain Kiram in 1611. Another khachkar which is particularly remarkable for its ornamentation and which is preserved intact traces back to 1619: it perpetuates the memory of a certain Gulmelik and Sargis.

The monastery of Shekhmurad is one of the most remarkable medieval monuments of North-Eastern Armenia. Its structures are not distinguished for any composition peculiarity, but together they make Shekhmurad quite a remarkable monastic complex.