St. Stepanos Church of Agulis
Location: Yukhari Aylis (Az.) / Agulis (Arm.)
Destruction
Perched on the side of a hill in the town of Agulis, St. Stepanos Church was still standing when historian Argam Ayvazyan surveyed the site during his fieldwork in Nakhchivan (1964-1987). The domed basilica had three apses facing a main hall, and under the apses were vestries that could be accessed from their bemas. The cupola rested on four cruciform pillars. There were Armenian inscriptions on the southern facade, and decorative sculptures around the entrances and windows. The church had been destroyed by February 3, 2000, when the IKONOS satellite captured an image of the now vacant plot. 1,2,3
Drag the swipe tool right to see the intact church in 1973; drag left to see the now-vacant site after the church's destruction.
Geolocation
St. Stepanos Church was situated on the slope of a hill in the northwestern Verin Get district of Agulis. 1 The church's location is marked on 1:50K scale Soviet topographic maps of 1936 and 1977. CHW confirmed the church's precise location using KH-9 Hexagon satellite imagery captured on July 12, 1982.
Timeline
Image Gallery
Images © Argam Ayvazyan Archive, used with permission.
References
1 Ayvazyan, Argam. Agulis: Patmamshakutayin hushardzanner. Yerevan: Hayastan, 1984, p. 24, 33.
2 Ayvazyan, Argam. Nakhijevan ISSH haykakan hushardzannery. Hamahavak tsutsak. Yerevan: Hayastan, 1986, p. 21-22.
3 Ayvazyan, Argam. The Historical Monuments of Nakhichevan. Transl. Krikor H. Maksoudian. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1990, p. 20-21.
4 Upravlenie voennykh topografov RKKA, J-38-44-B (Dasta), 1:50,000, 1936.
5 Generalnyi shtab, J-38-44-B (Dasta), 1:50,000, 1977.
6 KH-9 Hexagon, DSC1217-200631A018, July 12, 1982.
7 Maxar Technologies & East View Geospatial, February 3, 2000.
8 Research on Armenian Architecture, Nakhijevan Atlas. Yerevan: Tigran Metz Publishing House, 2012, p. 33.
