MARMASHEN

Type: Dome single nave
Location: On the banks of the Akhurean River a few kilometers form the city of Leninakan/Gumri near the ancient village of Vahramashen.
Date: Xth-XI c.
Evidence for date:
Important details:
State of preservation:
Reconstruction:
Summary: The complex is composed of three churches of various dimensions whose east walls are in almost perfect alignment. They reproduce the plan of a longitudinal domed hall already adopted in the VIIth century at T'alish and Pt'ghni. The main church, once preceded by a porch which has now disappeared, has exterior walls regularly subdivided by small blind arcades. These arcades likewise surround the portals and the triangular north and south niches as they do at Ani.. The polygonal drum is subdivided by grouped colonnades set at the angles and surmounted by an umbrella shaped roof. The monastery also had a fourth church whose ruins clearly show a plan very similar to that of St. Sergius in the nearby monastery at Khtskonk, i.e., a tetraconch inscribed in a cylinder.