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The Armenite

Armeniaca Place

Vagharshapat

ChristianityHistoryArtsAlso: Valarshapat, Vagharshapat (Etchmiadzin), Echmiatsin (town) and 2 more

Region
West of Yerevan, Armenia

Vagharshapat is the town in which the cathedral of Etchmiadzin stands. Its oldest written mention is from the reign of the Urartian king Rusa II (685–645 BC), when it was recorded as Kuarlini.1 In the History of Agathangelos it is where a group of consecrated women were martyred before the king’s conversion.2 After Christianity was adopted in 301, the name Etchmiadzin came into use alongside Vagharshapat, and the town is today called by either name.1

The World Heritage property here includes the cathedral, the churches of Saint Hripsime (618), Saint Gayane (630) and Saint Shoghakat (1694), and the ruins of the church of Zvartnots, built in the middle of the seventh century and destroyed in the tenth.1

Map: VagharshapatVagharshapatARMENIAYerevanAniAshtarakArtashatArmavirGavarHrazdanYeghegnadzor25 km
Map: Vagharshapat.

Sources

  1. UNESCO World Heritage Centre. “Cathedral and Churches of Echmiatsin and the Archaeological Site of Zvartnots.” World Heritage List, no. 1011 (inscribed 2000). link. ↩
  2. Thomson, Robert W. “Agathangelos.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 1, fasc. 6 (1984), pp. 607–608; online edition updated 6 June 2018. link. ↩