Ani

Ani was the capital of the Bagratid kingdom of Armenia in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Its ruins stand on a triangular plateau in the far northeast of Turkey, about 42 kilometers from Kars, where the Akhuryan River runs in a deep ravine along the border with Armenia.¹² UNESCO lists the Archaeological Site of Ani as a World Heritage Site.¹

The capital

The city grew important in the fifth century because it lay on a major east-west caravan route.² In 961 King Ashot III the Merciful moved his capital to Ani from Kars. Two later Bagratid kings beautified the city, and a golden age of building followed.² Under Gagik I, who reigned from 989 to 1020, the dynasty reached its height of power and wealth, and the cathedral was completed.³

King Smbat II ordered the cathedral in 989 from the architect Trdat the Architect. It was finished between about 1001 and 1006, with Queen Katramide supervising the work.⁴ The churches built in this period are among the finest examples of medieval architecture, and the walls and churches show the quality of Armenian stonework.²

UNESCO’s list of what survives is long. On the citadel stand the Kamsarakan Palace, the Palace Church, the Midjnaberd Church, the Sushan Pahlavuni Church, the Karamadin Church and the Church with Six Apses. Inside the walled city are the cathedral, the ramparts of Smbat II, the market and the bridge on the Silk Road. Rock-cut structures line the slopes of the Bostanlar Creek valley beyond the walls.¹ UNESCO recognizes the “Ani school” of religious architecture as an exceptional witness to Armenian architecture and urban design, and notes that the city also shows Georgian and Islamic traditions.¹

Loss of the city

Byzantium seized Ani in 1045, and the Seljuks took it in 1064.⁵ The site had been settled for nearly twenty-five centuries and was a hub for merchant caravans under Byzantine, Seljuk and Georgian rule.¹ Mongol raids in the thirteenth century, a devastating earthquake in 1319 and shifting trade routes caused its decline, and by the eighteenth century it was nearly abandoned.²¹