Categories: Antiquities

Kars Fortress and Surb Arakelots Church

Kars is the capital of the province of the same name. Among the special attractions of the province are Lake Çıldır, the ruins of Ani, and the ski resort of Sarygamysh.

The fortress of Kars in accordance with the Paris Peace Treaty of 1855 was given to the Turks in exchange for Sevastopol, Balaklava, and other Crimean cities. Kars has been a historically ancient Armenian city and the capital of the Armenian Kars kingdom.

Kars, rebuilt in the mid-1850s under the leadership of British engineers, was one of the most powerful fortresses of Asian Turkey. The fortress had four groups of fortifications with a height of up to 6 meters and a thickness of up to 10 meters, with stone casemates, barracks, and gunpowder cellars.

The San Stefano Peace Treaty of 1878 secured the fortress for Russia. However, in May 1918, after the conclusion of the Brest-Litovsk Treat, the Turks reoccupied Kars.

The St. Arakelots Church in Karsis a monument of medieval Armenian architecture in Kars. It was built during the reign of Abas Bagratuni in 928–953. In 1998, it was turned into a mosque.

Photo sent Gohar Hakobyan
Photo sent Gohar Hakobyan
Vigen Avetisyan

Recent Posts

Abandoned by an Ally: The French Armenian Legion in Cilicia and the Road to the Smyrna Catastrophe

How a promise made to genocide survivors was traded away for peace with Ankara —…

3 days ago

The Vilgort Cup: A Silver Masterpiece of Cilician Armenia (c. 1150–1159 A.D.)

A Fragment That Traveled Across Continents The gilt-silver medallion shown above — two richly dressed…

6 days ago

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…

2 weeks 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…

3 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:…

3 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…

3 weeks ago