Categories: Antiquities

Church of St. Gevorg in Mughni

Mughni Monastery is located in the village of the same name north of the town of Ashtarak in Aragatsotn Province. The complex includes the main church of St. Gevorg (1661–1669) with a gallery, a refectory, the abbot’s apartments, and office premises. The buildings of the monastery are surrounded by a beautiful & well-kept garden and a wall.

The Church of St. Gevorg was built by architect Sahak Khizanetsi and his successor Murat in the crossed-dome architectural style.

Possessing considerable size, the church is one of the most interesting buildings of its time. The round drum of the dome is crowned with a tented roof. Under the dome windows, there is a relief image of evangelists.

The interior of the church features preserved fragments of paintings of the 17th century. The open three-arch gallery was built simultaneously with the church and differs from similar buildings. Its average span is made somewhat higher and wider than the side, which greatly enhances its architectural expressiveness. The gallery is crowned by a 12-column belfry rotunda.

Surb Gevorg Church (Mughni, Armenia) XIV century

Vigen Avetisyan

Recent Posts

Hannibal and Artaxias the Great: The Carthaginian General Who Helped Build the “Armenian Carthage”

Few episodes in ancient Armenian history capture the imagination quite like the tradition that Hannibal…

3 days ago

The Priestess of the Kingdom of Van: A 9th-Century BC Bronze Figurine in the British Museum

Five angles of one small bronze figure — and what emerges is not an abstract…

2 weeks ago

The Winged Sun and the Armenian Tiara: Royal Symbolism of the Orontid (Yervanduni) Kingdom of Commagene, 163 BC – 72 AD

Introduction Among the successor states that emerged from the fragmentation of the Achaemenid-derived Orontid (Armenian:…

2 weeks ago

A Bronze Age Vessel from Gardman: Solar Symbolism, the Sun-Cross, and the Sacred Landscape of Ancient Armenia

Article based on the explanations and interpretive observations of Angela Terian, with additional archaeological and…

2 weeks ago

Rewriting the Caucasus: A Documented Look at Azerbaijan’s Historical Revisionism Regarding Armenia

Lenin: Soviet nationalities policy, Azerbaijan SSR founded 1920, Stalin: Constitution and census fix the ethnonym…

3 weeks ago

A Painted Wall from Ancient Armenia: The New Erebuni Fresco and the Urartian-Armenian Continuity

An unprecedented find on Arin Berd hill On 23 July 2026, the French Embassy in…

3 weeks ago