Arakelots Monastery
Arakelots Monastery was an Armenian monastery in the historic province of Taron, 11 km south-east of Mush (Muş), in present-day eastern Turkey. According to tradition, Gregory the Illuminator founded the monastery to house relics of several apostles. The monastery was, however, most likely built in the 11th century. During the 12th-13th centuries it was a major center of learning. In the following centuries it was expanded, destroyed and renovated. It remained one of the prominent monasteries of Turkish (Western) Armenia until the Armenian genocide of 1915, when it was attacked and subsequently abandoned. It remained standing until the 1960s when it was reportedly blown up. Today, ruins of the monastery are still visible.
Names
The monastery was most commonly known as Arakelots, however, it was also referred to as Ghazaru vank, after its first abbot Yeghiazar. It was also sometimes known as Gladzori vank, originating from the nearby gorge called Gayli dzor.Official Turkish sources refer to it as Arak Manastırı, a Turkified version of its Armenian name. Turkish sources and travel guides generally omit the fact that it was an Armenian monastery.
History
According to "a late medieval tradition", the monastery was founded in the early 4th century by Gregory the Illuminator to house various relics of apostles he transferred from Rome. "Those relics account for the monastery's name." According to Christina Maranci, evidence shows that the monastery was constructed in the latter half of the 11th century during the rule of the Tornikians—a branch of Mamikonians—who ruled Taron between 1054 and 1207. She writes that it is this era "which most scholars date the earliest portion of the structure." According to an inscription on a khachkar, it was renovated in 1125. In the east side of the monastery there were nine 11th century khachkars with inscriptions.In the following centuries it became a prominent educational center. The monastery school was active in 11th-12th centuries under chronicler and teacher Poghos Taronetsi, although it is known that translations were being made at the school since the 5th century. It flourished in 1271–81 under Nerses Mshetsi, who later moved to Syunik and established the University of Gladzor in 1280.
Between the 13th and 16th centuries, various Turco-Mongol dynasties ruled Taron. In the 14th century it was destroyed by Tamerlane's invasions. The Ottoman Empire annexed the region in the mid-16th century.
A wall was built around the monastery in 1791.
In November 1901 a Battle of [Holy Apostles Monastery|skirmish] between Armenian fedayi and the Ottoman forces took place in and around the monastery.
According to Jean-Michel Thierry, "the main church and chapels were still in a reasonably good state in 1960. Soon thereafter, however, they were reportedly dynamited by an official from Mush."
Structure
The ensemble consists of a main church with two chapels, a narthex, and a bell tower.;Within monastery walls
The St. Arakelots Church—the monastery's main church—was built in the 11th century. "It consists of an inscribed quatrefoil masked on the exterior by a massive rectangle. Barrel vaults top each of the four arms of the interior, as well as the corner chapels, which are two-storied at both east and west. A dome on squinches, now collapsed, once rested on an octagonal drum above the structure's central bay. Interior decoration included wall painting, and in the apse one can still discern human figures, most likely representing apostles." It had only one door, on the western side. The church was constructed of brick and mortar. The church was renovated in 1614. Its floor plan was cross-shaped, it had a rectangular shape in the outside. The dome, restored in 1663, was an octagon in the outside. A rectangular gavit was built in 1555 by abbot Karapet Baghishetsi.
To the west there was a three-storey bell tower with eight columned rotunda built by Ter Ohannes vardapet in 1791. Its lowest floor survives.
On the foundations of a 14th-century church, the St. Stepanos chapel was built south of the main church in 1663. "Composed of a single aisle terminating in an apse", it is now half-buried in rubble.
On the northern side, only ruins of the St. Gevorg chapel could have been found.
;St. Thaddeus Church
The St. Tadevos, though not within the monastery walls, was located some 300 meters northeast. Dated to the 13-14th centuries by Jean-Michel Thierry, it was well preserved. On the exterior, it was well-polished tufa; on the inside bricks.