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| image2 = Սանահինի վանք 12.jpg
| image2 = Սանահինի վանք 12.jpg
| image3 = Amenaprkitch Church (Sanahin) interior.jpg
| image3 = Amenaprkitch Church (Sanahin) interior.jpg
| footer=The ''gavit'' of the Church of St. Amenaprkitch (left, built 1181) and the church itself (right, built in 966), with corresponding plan. [[Sanahin Monastery]].<ref name="JBK48">{{cite book |last1=Kiesling |first1=John Brady |title=Rediscovering Armenia: An Archaeological/touristic Gazetteer and Map Set for the Historical Monuments of Armenia |date=2001 |publisher=Tigran Mets |isbn=978-99930-52-28-9 |page=48 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cZZpAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA48 |language=en |quote=The gavit of S. Astvatsatsin was built by Prince Vache Vachutian (a more southerly dynast) in 1211, that of Amenaprkich in 1181 under the sponsorship of the Kyurikian family.}}</ref>
| footer=The ''gavit'' of the Church of St. Amenaprkitch (left, built 1181) and the church itself, to which it is adjoined (right, built in 966), with corresponding plan. [[Sanahin Monastery]].<ref name="JBK48">{{cite book |last1=Kiesling |first1=John Brady |title=Rediscovering Armenia: An Archaeological/touristic Gazetteer and Map Set for the Historical Monuments of Armenia |date=2001 |publisher=Tigran Mets |isbn=978-99930-52-28-9 |page=48 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cZZpAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA48 |language=en |quote=The gavit of S. Astvatsatsin was built by Prince Vache Vachutian (a more southerly dynast) in 1211, that of Amenaprkich in 1181 under the sponsorship of the Kyurikian family.}}</ref>
}}
}}
The ''gavit'', the distinctive Armenian style of narthex, appeared in the tenth and eleventh centuries.<ref>Medieval Armenian architecture: constructions of race and nation Christina Maranci – 2001 "Unlike Strzygowski, who stressed the importance of race and nation in the formation of architecture, ... Another structure at Ani also provided Baltrusaitis with an [[ogive]] — the narthex or gavit' located at the south side of the church."</ref> The first structures in the 10th century were simple quadrangular buildings without columns and protected by wooden roofs, used as dynastic necropoleis.<ref name="EV207">{{cite journal |last1=Vardanyan |first1=Edda |title=The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit‘ Structures in Armenien Architecture |journal=Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz |date=1 January 2015 |page=207 |url=https://www.academia.edu/42320635/The_%C5%BDamatun_of_Ho%E1%B9%99omos_and_the_%C5%BDamatun_Gawit_Structures_in_Armenien_Architecture |quote=From the end of the 10th century, simple quadrangular buildings without columns but with wooden roofs appeared adjacent to churches (mainly on the western side), serving as dynastic necropoleis. No particular name was given to them. No particular name was given to them. The oldest of such centrally-planned four-columned ante-ecclesial structures is that of Hoṙomos Monastery, built in 1038 by King Yovhannēs-Smbat together with the Upper Church of St. John (Surb-Yovhannēs). It has a rectangular ground plan and four central columns. The ceiling is shaped like an octagonal cone and is decorated with sumptuous reliefs, while externally an eight-column rotunda rises above the entire construction.}}</ref> From the 11th century, the first known ''zhamatun'' with a four-columned structure appears in [[Hoṙomos Monastery]], built in 1038 by King [[Yovhannēs-Smbat]].<ref name="EV207"/> The vault was in the shape of an octogonal cone, and was decorated with superb reliefs.<ref name="EV207"/>
The ''gavit'', the distinctive Armenian style of narthex, appeared in the tenth and eleventh centuries.<ref>Medieval Armenian architecture: constructions of race and nation Christina Maranci – 2001 "Unlike Strzygowski, who stressed the importance of race and nation in the formation of architecture, ... Another structure at Ani also provided Baltrusaitis with an [[ogive]] — the narthex or gavit' located at the south side of the church."</ref> The first structures in the 10th century were simple quadrangular buildings without columns and protected by wooden roofs, used as dynastic necropoleis.<ref name="EV207">{{cite journal |last1=Vardanyan |first1=Edda |title=The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit‘ Structures in Armenien Architecture |journal=Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz |date=1 January 2015 |page=207 |url=https://www.academia.edu/42320635/The_%C5%BDamatun_of_Ho%E1%B9%99omos_and_the_%C5%BDamatun_Gawit_Structures_in_Armenien_Architecture |quote=From the end of the 10th century, simple quadrangular buildings without columns but with wooden roofs appeared adjacent to churches (mainly on the western side), serving as dynastic necropoleis. No particular name was given to them. No particular name was given to them. The oldest of such centrally-planned four-columned ante-ecclesial structures is that of Hoṙomos Monastery, built in 1038 by King Yovhannēs-Smbat together with the Upper Church of St. John (Surb-Yovhannēs). It has a rectangular ground plan and four central columns. The ceiling is shaped like an octagonal cone and is decorated with sumptuous reliefs, while externally an eight-column rotunda rises above the entire construction.}}</ref> From the 11th century, the first known ''zhamatun'' with a four-columned structure appears in [[Hoṙomos Monastery]], built in 1038 by King [[Yovhannēs-Smbat]].<ref name="EV207"/> The vault was in the shape of an octogonal cone, and was decorated with superb reliefs.<ref name="EV207"/>

Revision as of 17:34, 5 April 2024

For other uses, see Gavit (surname).
Gavit of Geghard Monastery in Armenia (UNESCO World Heritage Site). Dated 1215-1225, it has a muqarnas vault at the center.

A gavit (Armenian գավիթ gawit‘) or zhamatun (Armenian: ժամատուն žamatun) is a congressional room or mausoleum added to the entrance of a church, and therefore often contiguous to its west side, in a Medieval Armenian monastery. It served as narthex (entrance to the church), mausoleum and assembly room, somewhat like the narthex or lite of a Byzantine church.[1] As an architectural element, the gavit was distinct from the church, and built afterwards.[2] Its first known instance is at the Horomos Monastery, dated to 1038, when it was already called "žamatun".[3][2] The term "gavit" started to replace the term zhamatum' from 1181, when it first appears in an inscription at the Sanahin Monastery.[4]

History

The gavit of the Church of St. Amenaprkitch (left, built 1181) and the church itself, to which it is adjoined (right, built in 966), with corresponding plan. Sanahin Monastery.[5]

The gavit, the distinctive Armenian style of narthex, appeared in the tenth and eleventh centuries.[6] The first structures in the 10th century were simple quadrangular buildings without columns and protected by wooden roofs, used as dynastic necropoleis.[7] From the 11th century, the first known zhamatun with a four-columned structure appears in Hoṙomos Monastery, built in 1038 by King Yovhannēs-Smbat.[7] The vault was in the shape of an octogonal cone, and was decorated with superb reliefs.[7]

Many of the first zhamatun or gavits were located in the south of the Armenia in the region of Syunik. The type of construction changed during the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, as found in the monasteries of Saghmosavank of Haritchavank, or Hovhannavank Monastery. They changed again in the late thirteenth century as can be seen in monasteries such as Gandzasar, and gradually ceased to be built in the late Middle Ages.

The general structure of the gavit, with its nine-bayed plan is typical of the nine-bayed plan of mosques from the Abassid period onward, which can be seen from Spain to Central Asia.[8]

The first mention of a "žamatun" appears in the 1038 dedicatory inscription of Horomos Monastery, which also is the oldest known "žamatun", built in 1038:[3]

In the year of the Armenians 487 (ie 1038), I, the šahanšah Yovannēs, son of the šahanšah Gagik, gave my vineyard located in Kołb to this church of mine, Surb-Yovannēs, which I have built in this monastery of Hoṙomos, along with this žamatun...

— Dedicatory inscription of the gavit at Horomos.[9]

The mention of the term gavit for such buildings appears for the first time more than a century later in 1181 in the dedicatory inscription at the Sanahin Monastery by Abbot Yovhannēs:[10]

In the year 630 (ie 1181 CE), at the time of the victorious king Georg, and amirspasalar Sargis and his sons Zak‘arē and Iwanē, and amira K‘urd, I, Yovannēs, Abbot of the holy monastery (re)built this once existing church and a gawit‘ from its foundations, with the help of amir K‘urd and the great vardapet Grigor and Christ God, with great hope...[10]

From the outside, a gavit or zhamatun only looks like a big rectangular block in front of a church, often with a colonnaded belvedere on top convering the hole of the oculus. Gavit of Horomos Monastery, 1038.[11]

It seems that zhamatun was used to refer to new structures built more-or-less contemporaneously with the neighbouring church to serve funerary or commemorative functions, while the terms gavit referred to a space built next to older churches, covering existing ancient gravestones.[12] "Gawit‘" had an ancient meaning of "open courtyard" referring to the existing space around old churches where the graves of the nobility were already placed, while žami tun means “house of hours” in Armenian, "zam" designating a time of the day dedicated to prayer.[12]

Structure

The earliest style of gavit consists of an oblong vault supported by double arches, with an erdik (lantern or oculus) center, and adorned with eight decorated slabs, as seen in the earliest known gavit at Horomos dated 1038.[3][2] In later types the vault would often be decorated with muqarnas stalactite designs.[13] This early type of muqarnas vault used cut stone in a way similar to that of Seljuk architecture, different from the typical Armenian vault construction, which used thin stoen facing on mortared rubble.[14] This form was replaced by a square room with four columns, divided into nine sections with a dome in the center. The last evolution consists of a gavit without columns and with arched ceilings.

On the west side of the Church of the Holy Redeemer in the Sanahin Monastery complex, the gavit built in 1181 has four tall free-standing internal pillars supporting arches. The pillars and their bases are elaborately decorated. In the same complex, the gavit of the Mother of God church is a three-nave hall with lower arches and less elaborate decorations on the pillars.[15]

Major examples

Some major examples of gavits and zhamatuns, ordered chronologically:

References

  1. ^ Levon Chorbajian; Patrick Donabédian; Claude Mutafian (1994). The Caucasian knot: the history & geopolitics of Nagorno-Karabagh. Zed Books. p. 84. ISBN 1-85649-288-5.
  2. ^ a b c d Ghazarian, Armen; Ousterhout, Robert (2001). "A Muqarnas Drawing from Thirteenth-Century Armenia and the Use of Architectural Drawings during the Middle Ages". Muqarnas. 18: 145–146. doi:10.2307/1523305. ISSN 0732-2992.
  3. ^ a b c d Vardanyan, Edda (1 January 2015). "The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit' Structures in Armenien Architecture". Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz: 207.
  4. ^ Vardanyan, Edda (1 January 2015). "The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit' Structures in Armenien Architecture". Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz: 208.
  5. ^ a b Kiesling, John Brady (2001). Rediscovering Armenia: An Archaeological/touristic Gazetteer and Map Set for the Historical Monuments of Armenia. Tigran Mets. p. 48. ISBN 978-99930-52-28-9. The gavit of S. Astvatsatsin was built by Prince Vache Vachutian (a more southerly dynast) in 1211, that of Amenaprkich in 1181 under the sponsorship of the Kyurikian family.
  6. ^ Medieval Armenian architecture: constructions of race and nation Christina Maranci – 2001 "Unlike Strzygowski, who stressed the importance of race and nation in the formation of architecture, ... Another structure at Ani also provided Baltrusaitis with an ogive — the narthex or gavit' located at the south side of the church."
  7. ^ a b c Vardanyan, Edda (1 January 2015). "The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit' Structures in Armenien Architecture". Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz: 207. From the end of the 10th century, simple quadrangular buildings without columns but with wooden roofs appeared adjacent to churches (mainly on the western side), serving as dynastic necropoleis. No particular name was given to them. No particular name was given to them. The oldest of such centrally-planned four-columned ante-ecclesial structures is that of Hoṙomos Monastery, built in 1038 by King Yovhannēs-Smbat together with the Upper Church of St. John (Surb-Yovhannēs). It has a rectangular ground plan and four central columns. The ceiling is shaped like an octagonal cone and is decorated with sumptuous reliefs, while externally an eight-column rotunda rises above the entire construction.
  8. ^ Ghazarian, Armen; Ousterhout, Robert (2001). "A Muqarnas Drawing from Thirteenth-Century Armenia and the Use of Architectural Drawings during the Middle Ages". Muqarnas. 18: 146. doi:10.2307/1523305. ISSN 0732-2992. The common nine-bayed plan of the gavit calls to mind the typical nine-bayed mosque plan that spread through-out the Islamic world from Central Asia to Spain after the Abbasid era; at the same time, the domed, nine-bayed design was common for the naos of both Byzantine and Armenian church.
  9. ^ Vardanyan, Edda (1 January 2015). "The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit' Structures in Armenien Architecture". Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz: 210.
  10. ^ a b Vardanyan, Edda (1 January 2015). "The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit' Structures in Armenien Architecture". Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz: 216–217.
  11. ^ Kazaryan, Armen (2 May 2022). "The Zhamatun of Horomos: The Shaping of an Unprecedented Type of Fore-church Hall" (PDF). Journal für Kunst- und Bildgeschichte: 1–14. doi:10.48633/ksttx.2014.3.88328.
  12. ^ a b Vardanyan, Edda (1 January 2015). "The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit' Structures in Armenien Architecture". Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz: 221. All the above discussion permits the following conclusions. Those structures that were built next to and almost simultaneously with newly founded churches with the specific purpose of serving a funerary/commemorative function were called žamatun, while those built adjacent to older churches, covering already existing gravestones were called gawit'. This hypothesis is further confirmed by a historical-philological analysis of the respective terms.
  13. ^ Ghazarian, Armen; Ousterhout, Robert (2001). "A Muqarnas Drawing from Thirteenth-Century Armenia and the Use of Architectural Drawings during the Middle Ages". Muqarnas. 18: 145. doi:10.2307/1523305. ISSN 0732-2992. lts. Above the square central space was a complex muqarnas vault, measuring just over 5 m on each side, with a central erdik or oculus, which may have originally been covered by a colonnated canopy.
  14. ^ Ghazarian, Armen; Ousterhout, Robert (2001). "A Muqarnas Drawing from Thirteenth-Century Armenia and the Use of Architectural Drawings during the Middle Ages". Muqarnas. 18: 151. doi:10.2307/1523305. ISSN 0732-2992. Working similarly with cut stone, the Seljuq muqarnas provide a close technical comparison to Armenian construction. It is worth noting that the corbelled construction of the Armenian muqarnas vaults are technically and structurally closer to the Seljuq examples than they are to typical Armenian vault construction, which had a thin stone facing on a mortared rubble.
  15. ^ Nicholas Holding (2006). Armenia: with Nagorno Karabagh. Bradt Travel Guides. p. 161. ISBN 1-84162-163-3.
  16. ^ Vardanyan, Edda (1 January 2015). "The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit' Structures in Armenien Architecture". Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz: 211.
  17. ^ Ghazarian, Armen; Ousterhout, Robert (2001). "A Muqarnas Drawing from Thirteenth-Century Armenia and the Use of Architectural Drawings during the Middle Ages". Muqarnas. 18: 145. doi:10.2307/1523305. ISSN 0732-2992. The original chapel at the site dates from the fifth or sixth century, to which the main church or katholikon was added on the north side. It is dated by inscription to 1244, attributed to the patronage of Prince K'urd and his wife Xorisali. A separate inscription names a master, presumably the builder, named Yovhanes. The large gavit or narthex was constructed immediately following the church, and must have been completed by ca. 1250.
  18. ^ Vardanyan, Edda (1 January 2015). "The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit' Structures in Armenien Architecture". Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz: 212.
  19. ^ Vardanyan, Edda (1 January 2015). "The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit' Structures in Armenien Architecture". Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz: 213.
  20. ^ Geghard. p. 8. The inscription carved on the north wall of the church, shows the date of foundation in 1283, and the name of the donator, Prince Prosh.
  21. ^ "Unesco. Geghard Monastery" (PDF). The prosperity of the monastery in the thirteenth century was due to the patronage of the Proshyan prince, who carved out the second cave church in 1283, reached through a rock-cut antechamber which served as their mausoleum. The burials are in a recess behind twin arches, over which two felines on leashes and an eagle with a lamb in its talons, the family's armoured bearings have been sculpted in bold relief.
  22. ^ Geghard. p. 42.
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