Saint Shoghakat Church

Saint Shoghakat Church is located in Armavir Region of Armenia, on the eastern outskirts of Vagharshapat (Etchmiadzin) city. Next to Hripsime Church. Etchmiadzin Cathedral, St. Hripsime and S. Along with the Gayane churches, it is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. It was built during the reign of the Patriarch Catholicos, with funds provided by Prince Aghamal Shotoretsi (1694). Despite its relatively small size, the church is similar to St. Gayane and S. Hripsime churches, and reproduces the type of early medieval churches called "domed hall" with general solutions, one of the best examples of which are the Ptghnu and Aruchi cathedrals. The vestibule (1694) is located on the west side of the church. According to experts, there was another vestibule, which collapsed in 1807. The prayer hall is an elongated hall (7.1 x 14.2 m), on the east side of which is the semi-complete senior tabernacle, and on the right and left sides are the narrow storage rooms. The main entrance is from the vestibule (all Armenian Catholicos sleep here: Patriarch A of Edessa (the founder of the church), Abraham G of Crete), and the other entrance, which opens from the south side into the prayer hall, is plain and dirty.

The church is built of cut orange tuff with the utmost care, with an exceptionally simple exterior architecture (ornamental decorations are found only on the western facade of the vestibule hall crowned with a six-column bell tower), which is specific to the logical reasoning of the volume-spatial forms of the early medieval architecture of Armenia.

On the southwest side of the church, the remains of the ruined chapel (probably from IV-V centuries) have been preserved, and on the east side, the remains of the XIX century have been preserved. dating cemetery.