The Sorp Monastery of the Holy Precursor

On a terrace overlooking Lake Van, at 38° 29’N and 42° 31’E, in the Armenian canton of Yerevark‘, stands the monastery of the Holy Precursor monastery, or of Saint John the Baptist of Sorp [Reşadiye-Yelkenli]. It is located northeast of the town of the same name, on the western part of the south shore of the lake.

A colophon attributes the foundation of this monastery to a certain Basil (Vassil), who lived in the Van fortress, perhaps in either the Ardzrunid or the Byzantine period. Certain structural and decorative features seem to indicate that the monastery church, dedicated to the Precursor, John the Baptist, owing to the presence of one of the saint’s relics, probably dates from the 10^th or 11^th century. It may have been from here, or more likely from the desert of Saint George (n° 28), where he was director of the school, that Sergius of Sorp (Sarkis Sorpetsi) set out to found the monastic university at Ardzwaper (n° 7) that would make that convent famous. At some later time, Abbot Gregory (Krikor), later catholicos of Aght‘amar, is believed to have wrested these sites back from a certain Ibrahim and his family, who had appropriated them. These figures have been identified with Emir Ibrahim III (1497-1507) of Paghesh [Bitlis] and the poet-catholicos, Gregory II of Aght‘amar (Krikoris Aght‘amartsi, 1512-1544, see n° 17). The monastery church was restored in the 17^th or 18^th century, as attested by a cross-stone bearing the date 1575, included, with several others, in the walls of the church. This restoration may have provided the occasion to give the building a drum and cupola. Later the monastery housed a school. Often attacked and plundered, the Holy Precursor of Sorp was again looted during the 1895 massacres, and in 1915 it still had not recovered from the pillaging.

Fenȇtre ouest, 2012 (Coll. Maguesyan)

The monastery of the Holy Precursor comprises: the church of the Holy Precursor or John the Baptist, a small single-vessel nave some 6.5 × 4 m with a central drum set on secondary arches atop the triumphal arch and a transverse arch, as well as outbuildings. The buildings have completely disappeared, replaced by constructions around the church – itself used for storage – on the west and the south. The church roof is no longer visible and the outer shape of the drum is merely suggested.

Plan (Thierry, 1989, p.243)

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