Saint Stepanos Monastery

Saint Stepanos Monastery Սուրբ Ստեփանոս վանք
St. Stepanos Monastery
Religion
Affiliation	Armenian Apostolic Church
Location
Location	East Azarbaijan Province, Iran
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name: The Armenian Monastic Ensemble in Iran
Type	Cultural
Criteria	ii, iii, vi
Designated	2008 (32nd session)
Reference no.	1262
Region	Western Asia

The St. Stepanos Monastery or Monastery of St. Stephen the Protomartyr (Persian: کلیسای استفانوس مقدس, Azerbaijani: مؤقدس ایستیپانوس کیلیساسی, Armenian: Սուրբ Ստեփանոս վանք; Maghardavank Մաղարդավանք) is an Armenian monastery about 15 km northwest of Jolfa city, East Azarbaijan Province northwest Iran. It is situated in a deep canyon along the Arax river on the Iranian side of the border between Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and Iran. It was built in the 9th century and rebuilt in the Safavid era after several earthquakes damaged it.

History

A close view of the structure

The first monastery was built in the seventh century and completed in the tenth century. However, St Bartholomew first founded a church on the site around AD 62. But it was partly destroyed during the wars between the Seljuks and the Byzantine Empire in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Following the conquest of the region by the Mongols of Hulagu, grandson of Genghis Khan, in the middle of the thirteenth century, Christians benefited from the favorable Ilkhanid dynasty, and a peace agreement was signed between the Armenian Church and the Ilkhans. The monastery was restored in the second half of the thirteenth century. The monastery was completely rebuilt in 1330 under the leadership of Zachariah. St. Stepanos Monastery found the height of its cultural and intellectual influence in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The monastery produces paintings and illuminated manuscripts, in areas as diverse as religion, history and philosophy.

In the early fifteenth century, the new Safavid dynasty protected the Armenians. But the region was at the center of the rivalry between the Safavids and the Ottomans, who invaded Western Armenia in 1513. St. Stepanos in the sixteenth century observed a gradual decline until Shah Abbas I decided to evacuate the region from its inhabitants in 1604. The monastery then was abandoned. From 1650, the Safavids, however, decided to occupy the region again, and the damaged and abandoned St. Stepanos monastery was restored in the middle of the century.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the area became a challenge for the conquest of the Russian Empire. Yerevan was conquered by the Russians in 1827, and afterwards the border between Persia and Russia was established on the Araxes by Treaty of Turkmenchay. Consequently, part of the population was displaced by force to Russian Armenia. The Qajar rulers, however, continued to protect the Armenians. They encouraged the rebuilding of St. Stepanos monastery between 1819 and 1825.

The monastery underwent several restorations in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, especially since 1974.

Gallery

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  A close view
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  Another close view
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  Inside view
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  Wooden gate
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  Side wall
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  Main entrance

See also

• Saint Thaddeus Monastery
• Chapel of Chupan

External links

• Many photos from ancient buildings
• UNESCO World Heritage: Armenian Monastic Ensembles of Iran
• Historical Churches in Iran, at Iran Chamber Society www.iranchamber.com
• http://www.netiran.com/?fn=artd(1818)
• Hamid-Rezā Hosseini, The Stepanous Paradise (Behesht-e Stepanous - بهشت استپانوس), in Persian, Jadid Online, November 10, 2008, [1].
  A slide show: [2] (4 min 52 sec).
• Tishineh