Monastery of the Miracles, Adilcevaz, Eastern Turkey скачать в хорошем качестве

Monastery of the Miracles, Adilcevaz, Eastern Turkey

Also known as Monastery of Ardzgue (Armenian: Սքանչելագործ վանք, "Sk'anchelagortzi vank" ) is a destroyed Armenian monastery on the hills, northwest to the village of Adilcevaz in Bitlis province of modern Turkey, to the north from the Lake Van. The small town of Adilcevaz, whose medieval Armenian name was Ardzgue, is located beside the shores of Lake Van and at the base of a wide, well-watered valley. About six kilometres inland this valley splits into two at the base of a massive spur with precipitous cliffs. At the summit of that spur lies the Urartian town and temple site known as Kefkalesi. AS seen in this footage, the Monastery of the Miracles is reached by a track that runs up the left side of the left-hand valley. At the base of the track there are the scattered remains of an Armenian graveyard, the stones of which appear to be mostly re-used Urartian blocks. After reaching the monastery the track continues up the valley and eventually reaches the northern edge of the Kefkalesi site. Probably this route (rather than the current route which goes up the right-hand valley) was the original way to Kefkalesi. History of the Monastery: The closeness to Kefkalesi may suggest some sort of continuity from an Urartian religious site. Large blocks of stone that are clearly Urartian in origin can be seen in the foundations of the church. However, it is not possible to say if these were taken from Kefkalesi or from an Urartian structure that was on the site of the monastery. It is believed that the earliest known mention of this monastery is from the second quarter of the 8th century when, according to the Acts of the Martyrs, Vahan of Goghthen stayed there. He was the son of a local Armenian ruler and had been taken by the Arabs to Syria and raised as a Muslim. He was later sent back to Armenia to govern his territory under Arab suzerainty. However, as soon as he arrived he renounced Islam, returned to Christianity, came to Adilcevas, and retired into a nearby hermitage called Erashkhavor. His abandonment of Islam would eventually lead to his martyrdom around the year 737. Erashkhavor, which means Monastery of the Protector, is probably an earlier name for Sk'ants'elagorgivank. However, it is possible that Erashkhavor may have been another, now vanished, monastery that was also close to Adilcevaz. The importance of the monastery arose from its possession of certain relics that were believed to have the power to cure disease. This accounts for its later name being Sk'ants'elagorgivank, the "Monastery of the Miracles". Until about the 14th century a relic known as the "Holy Emblem of War" affected these cures. After that time a second relic gradually superseded it. This new relic was a piece of a large bronze caldron that had been found, buried in the ground, by the monks during an epidemic of pestilence. It came to be believed that this was the basin in which Jesus had been washed in just after His birth. It is likely that what the monks had actually uncovered was part of an Urartian caldron. During the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries the monastery housed a scriptorium. About 20 manuscripts have been identified as having being created there. At the end of the 19th century the monastery was still wealthy and owned much land. In 1893 an earthquake struck Adilcevas, destroying many houses. It is not know if the monastery was affected. In 1895 the monastery was attacked and robbed by Kurds, who also burned down the monastery's supplementary buildings. These were rebuilt at the start of the 20th century and the monastery continued to operate until 1915. The whole of the drum and dome was intact when Thierry surveyed it in the late 1960s. Half of it has now collapsed: this happened probably during the 1980s (it had definitely collapsed by 1992). for more info: http://virtualani.org/adilcevaz/index...