Etchmiadzin

Etchmiadzin is the mother cathedral of the Armenian Church and the seat of the Catholicos of All Armenians. It stands in Vagharshapat, west of Yerevan. Built between 301 and 303 under King Tiridates III and Gregory the Illuminator, it is the first cathedral built in Armenia and is widely described as the oldest cathedral in the world.¹²

The cathedral

The cathedral has a cruciform plan, with four apses and a central dome supported on four pillars. UNESCO calls it the earliest domed church in the World Heritage property at Etchmiadzin and notes that its design later spread to Byzantium and on to Central and Western Europe.¹ The building was reconstructed in the late fifth century, after a Persian invasion, under Vahan Mamikonian.²

The interior was painted from 1712 to 1721 by Naghash Hovnatan, whose paintings in the dome survive, together with an image of the Mother of God on the marble of the main apse. In 2000 the lead covering of the dome was removed and replaced with stone panels.¹ UNESCO placed the cathedral and churches of Etchmiadzin and the archaeological site of Zvartnots on the World Heritage List in 2000.¹ The story of its founding is told in the entry on the Conversion of Armenia to Christianity.

The Mother See

The Catholicos of All Armenians is the spiritual leader of Armenians in Armenia and the diaspora. He is elected for life by the National Ecclesiastical Assembly and consecrated by twelve bishops in the cathedral.³ The Church’s organization, including the second Catholicosate, in Cilicia, is described in the entry on the Armenian Apostolic Church.

In May 1918, when the Ottoman army advanced on Yerevan, Catholicos Gevorg V Surenyants called on the nation to resist and refused to leave Etchmiadzin; the battle that followed is told in Battle of Sardarabad.⁴