The Tapi Fortress – Armenia

The fortress of Tapi was also called “Gevorg Marzpetuni” in honor of sparapet (Սպարապետ – a title of a supreme commander of the armed forces in ancient and medieval Armenia) Marzpetuni.

The complex is located on the right bank of the Khosrov River near the entrance to the Khosrov Reserve, on the northwestern outskirts of Urts, 6 km northwest of the village of Urtsadzor, and 62 km from Yerevan. The complex was built in the 10th-13th centuries.

The rectangular perimeter of the inner walls of semicircular form surrounds the ruins of the 12th-13th-century church. The church of the monastery-fortress is a vaulted hall built of carefully processed white felsite stones.

It is surrounded by a rectangular layout of fortified walls, four corners of which are reinforced by rounded towers. The vaulted residential rooms of the complex are located in the southern and eastern walls.

Such fortresses have always been the most important military bases of Armenia.

Gevorg Marzpetuni Castle

by Ashot Abrahamyan (Alexander Bakulin)