Astvatsankal Monastery

[1] The main church was added to the chapel in 1244 under the commission of Prince K'urd of the Vachutian dynasty and his wife Xorisali, as known from an inscription:[1] By the grace and mercy of God, I Kurd, Prince of Princes, son of the great Vache, and my wife Khorishah, daughter of Marzpan, built the Holy Katoghike for the memory of our souls.

We have decorated it with every kind of precious ornament and offered the garden bought by us in Parpi, virgin land in Oshakan, a garden in Karbi, a villager (?

[1][3] Examples of this can be found in the Geghard Monastery, the Gandzasar Monastery as well (all in present-day Armenia),[4] and at the Church of St Gregory of the Illuminator in Ani.

[5] In many of these examples, muqarnas vaults are recurring features in the gavits (narthexes) of the churches, which were the locus of much innovation and experimentation in medieval Armenian architecture.

[4] These borrowings of Islamic architectural motifs may have been due to either Ilkhanid or Seljuk influences in the region, although the wide geographic spread of muqarnas usage in this period makes it difficult to pinpoint any specific influence with certainty.