Astvatsinkal
An ancient village by a monastery in the Kasakh gorge

What is this place

Astvatsinkal is a small, ancient village in the east of Armenia's Aragatsotn Province, in the historic district of Nig, perched at the edge of the deep gorge of the Kasakh River. It shares its name with the medieval Astvatsynkal Monastery, which stands on a high triangular hill above the river between the villages of Hartavan (Artavan) and Yernjatap. This is a quiet, thinly populated mountain place whose life has always been inseparable from the old sanctuary for which the village first came into being.

Astvatsinkal lies at roughly 1,840 metres above sea level, in the mountainous belt of eastern Aragatsotn. The terrain here is sharp and expressive: the gorge of the Kasakh River presses up against the village, its right bank breaking off in sheer cliffs while the left bank descends in gentle slopes to the water. The climate is harsh and mountain-cool, with long snowy winters and short, clear summers; all around lie the stony pastures and slopes typical of the foothills that face the great massif of Mount Aragats.

The village's history is bound up inseparably with Astvatsynkal Monastery. The name itself comes from a relic kept at the monastery, the Astvatsynkal Holy Cross; the Armenian word means, literally, the one who receives God. The oldest structures of the monastery, the single-nave vaulted basilica of Surb Astvatsatsin (Holy Mother of God), were raised at the turn of the 4th and 5th centuries by the lords of the Nig district, the Gntuni noble house. The founding of the village is logically tied to that building campaign, meaning its roots reach back at least to the 4th century.

The sanctuary flourished in the 13th century, when the district was held by the Vachutian princes. In 1207 the ancient church was renovated and a large monastic brotherhood was established beside it. In the late 1230s Kurd I Vachutian, prince of princes and commander of the Ararat land, together with his wife, Princess Khorishah, undertook a major building programme; in 1244 the domed church of Surb Nshan (Holy Sign) was completed, attached to the old basilica. The Vachutian couple are known for other works in this land as well, including the church at Yeghipatrush and the fortress walls of the capital Vardenis.

The monastic complex is an expressive example of Armenian medieval architecture: structures of different eras have fused into a single whole, fitting harmoniously into the rocky landscape of the gorge. Carved cross-stones, ornamented portals and a gavit narthex complete the ensemble, while across the river a fortress once rose. It is for these very stones, which remember the princes of Nig-Aparan, that a handful of travellers still climb up to Astvatsinkal today.

Written sources preserved the village's name long ago. A manuscript by the scribe Sahak, dated 1644 and kept in the Matenadaran, lists the villages of Nig-Aparan and includes a brief note: Atsnkaln ast e, meaning Astvatsynkal is here. Like many settlements of the district, Astvatsinkal declined during the Seljuk invasions and the Turkish-Persian wars, falling empty and reviving by turns.

In the early 19th century, after Eastern Armenia became part of the Russian Empire, the village was resettled: in 1829 families who had migrated from Manzikert (Manazkert) made their home here, as attested by a geographic survey of 1831. Yet this revival, too, proved short-lived; in time the mountain village emptied once more, and its permanent life faded by the middle of the 20th century. Today Astvatsinkal is above all a historic site and a name on the map beside the ancient sanctuary, sparsely peopled and still.

For travellers crossing eastern Aragatsotn, Astvatsinkal draws you not with bustle but with the silence of the Kasakh gorge and the ancient walls of its monastery, a place where the history of the Nig district can be read straight from the stone.