Goshavank
Mkhitar Gosh, a statesman, scientist and author of numerous fables and parables as well as the first criminal code, took part in the rebuilding of the monastery.
Grigor Lusavorich Church in Goshavank, started in 1237 and finished by Prince Grigor-Tkha in 1241, while being true to the type of Armenia's fifth-century basilicas, is distinguished by the extravagance of its decorations.
The bottom of the altar apse is trimmed by a graceful arcature topped with a band which is ornamented with an intricate geometrical pattern and garlands of alternating trefoils and spheres.
The tympanum of the pointed arch of the latter is filled with a fine ornament composed of an intricate interlacement of floral shoots forming a combination of rosettes of various sizes.
A similar ornament covers lintel stones, abaci of the columns, individual parts of the archivolt and a hand of eight-pointed stars trimming the portal in a rectangular frame.
It has a squat octahedral tents above the central section, making it similar in structure to the Armenian peasant home of the glkhatun type.
In the second stage, accomplished in 1291 by the patrons Dasapet and Karapet, the top – a small church with two altar apses, crowned with a multicolumn rotund belfry – was completed.
The book depository's semi-circular and dihedral grooved abutments were topped with plain slabs with the lower corners sloped in the shape of trefoils.
The roofings of the corner sections, designed on the false vault principle, are composed of triangles differing in size and shape and arranged in such a way as to form eight-pointed stars.
The architectural peculiarities of the composition of the bell tower influenced the design of the structures like the two-story sepulchral churches in Yeghvard and Noravank built in Armenia in the second quarter of the fourteenth century.
The finely carved lacy ornaments are arranged in layers in which the basic elements of the composition — a cross on a shield-shaped rosette and eight-pointed Starr filling the corners of the middle-cross section—show clearly.
The monastery of Goshavank, together with that of Haghartsin, may become part of a natural site based on the state protected area of Dilijan National Park, an important forest in north-eastern Armenia.
1. St. Astvatsatsin Church (1191–1196) [ 1 ]
2. St. Gregory Church (1208–1241) [ 1 ]
3. St. Gregory the Illuminator Church (1237–1241) [ 1 ]
4. Double chapel (13th century) [ 1 ]
5. Single chapel
6. Gavit of St. Astvatsatsin church (1197–1203) [ 1 ]
7. Bell tower and book depository (1241–1291) [ 1 ]
8. School building (13th century)
9. Gallery (13th century) [ 1 ]
