Today we visited Haghpat Monestary, Sanahin Monestary, and in the Lori region; Hovannes Toumanian’s home-museum.
The Haghpat Monestary was founded in the 10th century by Queen Khosrovanoush, wife of Ashot Voghormazzin. The main church is the Soorp Nshan church, built in 976 by architect Trdat. Its entrance was built later. Soorp Nshan church has beautiful frescoes, and is cross-shaped from the inside, like a Greek cross. There are also inscriptions on the walls. In the gate of the church, there is a royal burial ground. It became the first Armenian monument to be included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
The Sanahin Monestary, which faces Haghpat, was built in 927, but used to be a Pagan temple. In the 10th century, Peouzantatsi religious people founded the church. Sanahin is older than Haghpat. When Haghpat was built they called Sanahin “Sanahin” because in Armenian it means “this is older than that”. There are two doves facing each other on the entrance, which means that there is Christianity.
We also went to Hovanes Toomanyan’s house-museum. He wrote fantasy stories for children, and poems for adults. He was born in 1869, and died of cancer in 1923. He had ten kids: six of them were girls and four of them were boys. In front of his door were ten pairs of shoes, which led people to think that lots of guests came over to his house.
Lori was a really beautiful city. We went to a hotel for lunch and didn’t want to leave, we played tag outside. On our way there we saw a fox, two pigs, and a few sheep. On our way back we saw a herd of cows.
GOOD NEWS IT WAS KRISTINA A’S BIRTHDAY TODAY!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
WE MISS YOU GUYS HOPE YOU ARE HAVING A GOOD TIME, I KNOW WE ARE
Meghri Dervartanian