Avan Church, Armenia

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The village of Avan, lying in the angle between the Sevan and Garni roads, has been swallowed up by Yerevan. Heading N past the Zoo (on the right, larger than it looks, and not as depressing as it could be) and just before the Botanic Garden (on the left, spacious and nice for walks, with some plans for redemption), take the right off-ramp for Garni, but then go straight through the intersection and turn left at the stop sign. Turn immediately right, and head about 1 km up the main road of Avan. Where the main road turns right at a modern monument and cemetery, continue straight past the intersection a few meters, then take the first left down a narrow lane. The church is about 300 m along, on the left. Like many other early churches, this one is known locally as the Tsiranavor ("apricot-colored"). Avan Church is the earliest surviving church inside the Yerevan city limits, dating to the late 6th c. At a time when Armenia enjoyed competing pro-Persian and pro-Byzantine katholikoi, the Avan church was built by the pro-Byzantine Catholicos Hovhannes Bagavanetsi (traditional dates 591-603) as his headquarters, while his pro-Persian rival sat in Dvin. Multi-apsed, built on a two-step podium, the church preserves a low arched doorway but is roofless. A surviving inscription preserves the name Yohan in a plausibly early style, but with no title to confirm that this commemorates the founder. There are ruins of monastic buildings N, perhaps the seat of the rival Catholicosate.

On a slope south of the early village, now on the edge of town, are two chapels, of S. Hovhannes and S. Astvatsatsin, with interesting carvings. Restored several times over the ages, they are believed to originate from the 5-6th centuries. They underwent major reconstruction in the 13th c., but have spent three centuries in ruins since the 1679 earthquake. The Avan cemetery on the west edge of the town has khachkars of the 13-18th c and, across the road, the uninscribed stepped plinth and broken pillar of a 5-6th c. grave monument.

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