018
38° 21' 47" N
42° 54' 14" E
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Desert of the Hermit or Convent of the Red Gem

(Miantzën Anabad or Garmir Ag’n Vank‘)
Desert of the Hermit or Convent of the Red Gem
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At the eastern tip of the peninsula of Gabourdgogh [Akkül Dağı], at 38° 22’ N and 42° 54’ E, and northwest of the village of Mokhrapert [Göründü Köyü] at an altitude of some 2000m, stands the desert of the Hermit, on the slopes of a narrow valley opening onto the southern shore of Lake Van. These sites were no doubt placed under the name of the Holy Sign as early as the mid 15th century, having held a piece of the Holy Cross. This fragment was kept in the reliquary of the Red Gem (Garmin Ag’n, contracted to Garmrag), surmounted by a stone of the same color, which came to designate the convent. This relic – the Holy Sign (Sourp Nëchan) of the Red Gem –, formerly claimed by the Arkelan monastery (n° 5), is mentioned in 1461 as being in a convent of the Slopes (Goghouts Vank‘) and then, in 1644, in a desert of Anen (Anen Anabad), with which the desert of the Hermit was therefore identified. It was later discovered at Paghesh [Bitlis], where it gave its name to the church – today in ruins – of the Holy Mother of God “of the Red Gem” (Garmrag(’n) Sourp Asdwadzadzin). The same name is applied to the desert of the Hermit, one of whose churches is dedicated to the Virgin.

Vue générale, 2016 (Coll. privée).

Tradition places the foundation of this hermitage at the time of the king of Vasbouragan, Kakig (Gaguik) (908-943), who is supposed to have spent his retreats there. The monastery includes two conjoined churches, the smaller of which, to judge by its architecture, may have been built even earlier. In the later, second church, a cross stone engraved by the prior Thadeus (T‘ateos), today inserted in the wall above a window, bears the date 1306. Others are dated 1347, 1371, 1476 and 1479. Associated with the desert of the Hermit is the name of a saintly anchorite, Isaac (Sahag), buried nearby, whose sight was miraculously restored; to the west, near the village of Kantzag [Altınsaç Köyü], on the spot where he was accustomed to pray, a hermitage was built, or a priory, enlarged in 1608, and which later, in the 16th-17th century contained a small scriptorium. The convent of the Red Gem was plundered in 1895.

The desert of the Hermit or convent of the Red Gem is composed of a primitive church (A), a mononave measuring 8.5 × 5.3 m, with a pointed barrel vault nave, lateral niches under arches and a horseshoe-shaped bay; the church of the Holy Mother of God (B), measuring 12.9 × 7.8 m, a mononave with a drum and cupola and niches under arches built against the south wall of the original church and communicating with it, very probably reworked in the 13th and 14th centuries and restored in 1872; and a precinct wall with cells along the west side.

Plan (Thierry, 1989, 296)

Confiscated after the Great War, “Garmrag Vank‘ ” was left empty. In the 1970s it was used as a sheepfold. The precinct walls had collapsed, but the churches were in fairly good condition. The complex has deteriorated considerably since then. The hermitage of Saint Sahag, on the other hand, has been leveled.

Épriguian, 1903-1905, II [1905], 333-334. Oskian, 1940-1947, I, 184-187. Thierry, 1989, 294-298.

018
38° 21' 47" N
42° 54' 14" E
Desert of the Hermit or Convent of the Red Gem
Միանձն անապատ կամ Կարմիր Ակն վանք
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019
The Monastery of Saint-Thomas at Kantzag
017
Monastery and Catholicosate of the Holy Cross of Aght‘amar
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