Priest Vigen Ghazaryan about Akhtala St. Mary church

20.06.2013 14:11

We are now standing with You in front of a church which is unique and the only one in the world. There is a value in this church that makes it unique and also makes Armenia presentable in the world cultural context. Akhtala St. Mary Church is the only church in the world, where murals of about 960 square meters are preserved and these murals are 800 years old. This combination is not repeated anywhere in the world. You can find any church in the world with older murals, but they will not be of a big quantity, as they are in our church, and you can find any church with more murals, but they will not be so ancient. So with these two values together, this church is the only one in the world the great many of murals and their antiquity. The church was built in 1188 by princess Mary, the last great-granddaughter of Bagratunyats dynasty. But before that a castle had been built by Kyurikyans from Bagratunis, and after two centuries St. Mary Church was built as a citadel. For many years after the post-Soviet period, as well as in the pre-Soviet period the church was abandoned because of its frontier location and there was no opportunity to properly take care of it. But it is already the third year, that there is a parish priest in the church, your humble servant Vigen Ghazaryan, who brings his service to the church and fulfills a liturgy every Sunday. Also in all churches and sanctuaries of the region pilgrimages, care works and promotions are carried out so that population could come closer to its sanctuaries. And it is already the third year that Akhtala Church is fully running. We already have appreciable achievements in the church. Thanks to the holy faith of good people we already have a plan for reconstructing the dome of the church.

We Armenians, being the heirs of Christ and people of God, are obliged not only to take part in the reconstruction of churches, but we should also to take care of them in a proper way, so as not to have them repaired again. If we cherish our churches like our homes, they will never be in need. Our church will be the image of our community and the image of spiritual description of our community.

We wish and pray, that there could be found caring people for all sanctuaries of Armenia and in all communities the Armenians could take an example from those caring people, who, though not completely, but at least they have given their contribution to the care and rehabilitation process of the given church.

The destroyed icon of Blessed Virgin we see in central altar has its history. When Agha Mahmed Khan invaded Caucasus region in the 18th century, the Lezgins ( they were nomadic tribes from Dagestan) joined him. When they occupied Tbilisi in 1794, they invaded these territories. Coming here to conquer Akhtala castle, they see people running to the church to find a shelter. And when themselves entering the church found no one there, they thought that a miracle had happened—people had disappeared. At the moment they were about to leave the church, they heard a baby’s cry and guessed that people where hiding behind the wall and that there should be a secret entrance taking to these hidden-places. After searching the entrance for a long time they got angry and brought in a big cannon and right from the center shot the Blessed Virgin’s face. The shell, that big metal bowl, flew out from the other side of the wall. And when we go out and walk around the church we shall see the biggest relief engraved cross of Armenia on the wall of the church. From the center of that cross the shell came out in such a way, that it did not damage neither the cross, nor the wall. For an understanding Christian this, at least, is a miracle. In fact, the secret entrance is in the left sacristy that we shall show to you now, opens a road to the second floor through the secret wall. That is a room in the wall.

Also there is a third floor, then there is a corridor upon the altar and two more rooms are on the other side. But there is no exit from the right side sacristy, this door is just an entry to the first floor. So, these are hidden places, secret rooms, where the villagers saved their lives and treasures of the church from the barbarians’ attacks.

Before entering we can guess the reason why the barbarians did not see that entrance. In fact, that entrance is open without door. The light from the window dazzles our eyes and we do not see the entrance. But the windows have non-symmetric structure; there is a window on the right side, and in the central part, but there is no window on the right side.

From the first sight it seems to us, that instead of the missing window there should be a secret entrance, but it is not so in reality. It is a trick. There is no window on the right side, so that the left sight would not be in light. Now we see that there is a little light on the right wall, but the left wall is in absolute darkness due to the absence of the right window, so that the secret entrance would not be seen. But the barbarians did not hope only for the daylight; they had torches, fires. There was a portable stone door there, and when it closed, made an impression of a wall, and no one could guess, that there could be a secret entrance.

Our great filmmaker Sergey Parajanov has shot some parts of his movie “The Colour of Pomegranate” here, in St. Mary Church. And here we see paintings,that are duplicates from the walls of the church for the film scenery. Now we do not have conditions for museum to properly preserve and take care of our great filmmaker’s works. Today they have a museum value,that is why we do not want to be parted from those works, for they represent a part from this church history. And we should remember the part from the movie, when the Mongol bowman soldier shoots with dart bow, and Mary’s icon falls down. In fact it has a historical motive. Sergey Parajanov took that part from Lezgins’ events, that had taken place in Akhtala St. Mary Church, and it was not a Mongol soldier, but a Lezgin one and it was not a bow and arrow, but a cannon.

This is an ore, which is oxidized under the sunrays, and a kind of blue powder is formed, and when this powder is mixed with water or starch, a blue paint is formed. While painting a mural with that blue paint, it never loses its colours, remains the same blue colour for centuries. Now we see an 800 years old blue paint. In the 12th century the three dominant colours that were used, were red, blue and yellow. The red colour was carmine, the blue colour was copper powder and the yellow colour was gold powder.

Besides the dome project, we also dream and wish to see not only the church dome, but also the whole castle reconstructed, as a symbol of the nation's once-glorious past victorious pages, as a symbol of being a strong and a powerful country. Here we see the whole castle being reconstructed by the help of computer technologies, something we wish to see in reality.

This part that we see is the part of the entrance, the main tower, from where people enter, and we have an aim to build military museums here, so that the tourists, while visiting our country, could come closer to Armenia, to know more about our country, our castles, churches and our powerful and victorious spirit.