Khachatur Kesaratsi (1590-1646) was the founder of the first printing press in Iran. He installed the printing press in the Church of Holy Savior in New Julfa in 1638.
Khachatur Kesaratsi’s printing house was the first not only in Iran but also in the entire Middle East. The first book in Persian was published in Iran in 1830, nearly two centuries later.
Khachatur Kesaratsi and several monks constructed the printing press on their own, without support from European specialists. In four years – from 1638 to 1642 – four books were printed here: “Psalter”, “Life of the Fathers”, “Khorhrdatetr” (“Armenian Missal”), and “Zhamagirk” (“Horology”).
Khachatur Kesaratsi considered books to be the spiritual territory of Armenia.
Here, on the territory of the cathedral is a museum of Armenian art housing the press on which Kesaratsi printed the first books in Iran, as well as some of these books.
