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Vahanavank is an Armenian architectural
monument of the 10th-11th centuries, a monasterial
complex. It is the religious center of Syunik principality, later
kingdom and is 3 km to the north-west of Kapan on the right bank
of the river Voghchi on the picturesque and woodland hillside.
It was founded by Syuniats Vahan, the son of Dzagik prince and
was named after him. |
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The St. Gregory Illuminator church
built in 911 by Vahan prince is the oldest among the monuments.
It is a domed hall like building with a main temple and a pair
of sacristies. Later in the western part of the church
prince Vahan’s cousin Vahan built an arched vestibule and a portico.
The latter stretches to the south of the church and the narthex.
Kings and princes of Syunik are buried here. In 1086 Syuniats queen Shahandukht
and her sister Katan built the south entrance of the monastery
and Sb. Astvatsatsin church and vestibule. There are other constructions
and household buildings, springs, inscriptions, khachkars, tombstones
dated back to the 10th –11th centuries.
In 1990 the reconstruction of the monument
was stopped.
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