HY RU EN
Asset 3

Loading

End of content No more pages to load

Your search did not match any articles

Sona Avagyan

Who Is Responsible for 13th Century St. Marineh? The Ministry of Culture or Etchmiadzin?

In response to a Hetq inquiry as to whether the RA Ministry of Culture has inspected the 13th century Saint Marineh Church in Ashtarak and evaluated it architectural soundness, the ministry says that the edifice was returned to the Holy See of Etchmiadzin and that it is responsible to implement any necessary repairs.

Large cracks in the walls of the church, built in 1281 from brownish black smooth face tufa stone, have appeared.

The church is a cruciform central-plan from inside and rectangular from exterior (11.45 X 8.88 meters) and drum of the dome is round from inside, decahedral from the outside. The belfry over the southern wing was built in 1838. A basilica was tacked on in the early 20th century.

We then contacted Father Vahram Melikyan, who heads the Public Affairs Office at Etchmiadzin.

“It’s a pity that the ministry keeps parroting the same response, that the owners of such monuments are responsible for their maintenance,” Father Vahram said.

He said that Etchmiadzin just didn’t have the resources to single-handedly take care of all the religious monuments under its jurisdiction.

“The officials of the ministry should know better and not try to justify their actions by citing RA law. That same law obligates them, as government officials, to display a degree of care to these holy sites,” said Father Vahram.

St. Marineh falls within the Diocese of Aragatsotn, and Father Vahram told Hetq that the Diocesan Primate had contacted the Ministry of Culture, requesting that it initiate preservation measures for the church.

Write a comment

If you found a typo you can notify us by selecting the text area and pressing CTRL+Enter