Mastara Church, Armenia

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Historical Aragatsotn is rich of valuable monuments. One of them is the church of St. Hovanes in the village of Mastara. It stands out among central-domed cruciform (inside and outside) churches, like the big church in Artik, the church of St. Gregory of Arichian cloister, St. Sarkis in Voskepar and Arakelots in Kars (X c).

Another version of this type is the temple in Bagaran (first half of VII c), in which unlike the temple in Mastara and like Echmiadzin's temple, four pylons carrying the dome are added to the central praying hall, on account of which a completely different constructive system of the passage to the dome is formed.

The composition of the scheme of the church in Mastara is close with the scheme of Echmiadzin cathedral. It is cruciform inside and outside. The sides of the cross make half-rounded apses, which except the eastern one (with two side-chapels), advance as five-bordered volumes of facades. The main difference of the schemes of Echmiadzin's cathedral and the temple is the absence of four pylons in the praying hall. Thank to this, as in churches like dome halls, the praying hall isn't divided and is taken as a single inward volume.

An absolutely new, more complicated constructive solution was applied for building a floor for praying hall. This was realized by leaning the floor of the hall on carrying arches of half- rounded apses (here serving as persistent bays) the inward walls and big-sized tromps situated in corners. The drum of the dome turned out to be voluminous on the bearings of described system. As a result of this, with the purpose of easing its visual looks the architect began using bays in the corners of the drum (like the bays of the temple in Garahovit)

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