Kobayr monastery

Kobayr (Armenian: Քոբայր) is a 12th-century Georgian-Armenian monastery located in the village Kobayr, directly across the road from the town of Tumanyan, within Lori marz, Armenia.

Kobayr monastery Քոբայր
Religion
Affiliation	Armenian Apostolic Church
Location
Location	near Tumanyan, Lori Province, Armenia
Shown within Armenia
Geographic coordinates	41.005061°N 44.635086°E / 41.005061; 44.635086
Architecture
Style	Armenian
Completed	1171

History

The monastery was built on a brink of a deep gorge, in 1171, by the Kyurikid princes, a junior branch of the Bagratuni royal house of Armenia.

Kobayr was one of the famous spiritual, cultural and literary centers of Northern Armenia in the developed Middle Ages.

In the 1270s, the monastery was acquired by the Zakarians, a noble Armenian dynasty at the service of Georgian royals. The Zakarians converted Kobayr into a Chalcedonian monastery, as a result of which the monastery stayed under the tutelage of the Georgian Orthodox Church for some time. This explains several Georgian inscriptions found on the walls of the monastery, which exist alongside the monastery's original Armenian inscriptions.^[1][2][3] The monastery houses the tomb of Prince Shanshe Zakarian, son of Zakare II Zakarian. A bell tower in the middle of the complex was built in 1279 to house the tombs of Zakarian and his wife Vaneni. The monastery is currently undergoing renovation funded by the government of Armenia with the assistance of the government of Italy. The ruins of the main church in the monastery contain frescoes of Christ and the twelve apostles as well as the Church Fathers and other Christian figures.

Probable depictions of Shahnshah's wife Vaneni (left), her husband Shahnshah Zakarian (middle), and a kindred in military uniform (right), as donators at the Kobayr Monastery Chapel-Aisle.^[4]

Mural paintings

Mural paintings, which previously likely covered all the inside walls of the monastery, now only remain in the Big Church and the Chapel/Aisle adjoining it from the north. The style is mainly Byzantine of the 11th century CE. Inscriptions indicate that the building was consecrated in 1282, by the monk George who was the son of Shahnshah, of the Zakarian family.^[4]

The family members of the Zakarian family, including Zakare, Ivane, Shahnshah or Khutlubuga, are thought to have been depicted in the murals of the Haghpat Monastery,^[5] and inside the arches at the Kobayr Monastery (1282).^[6][7] Khutlubuga in particular is directly attested through an inscription and a relatively well preserved mural, reinforcing the suggestion that other close members of the dynasty were also depicted with him.^[8]

• 
  Christ depicted in fresco. Church
• 
  Frescoes of Saints. Church
• 
  Kobayr fresco (men in uniform), Chapel
• 
  Fresco at Kobayr Monastery, painted in the 1270s. Chapel.^[9][7]

Gallery

• 
  Church frescoes before reconstruction.
• 
  View of monastery from direction of Tumanayan
• 
  View of the Chapel from the belltower
• 
  View of remainder of complex from belltower
• 
  Belltower, tomb of Shahnshah Zakarian
• 
  View of Tumanayan from belltower
• 
  View of belltower - Tumanyan in background
• 
  Georgian inscriptions
• 
  Armenian inscriptions

References

1. Evans, Helen C.; Anderson, Benjamin; Aslanian, Sebouh David; Balakian, Peter; Eastmond, Antony; Jones, Lynn A.; Mathews, Thomas F.; Piñon, Erin; Qiu, Earnestine M.; Richardson, Kristina L. (10 January 2022). Art and Religion in Medieval Armenia. Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 48–49. ISBN 978-1-58839-737-9.
2. Академия наук СССР. Институт истории материальной культуры. Сектор Средней Азии / Эпиграфика Востока , Выпуски 13-17 / Изд-во Наука., 1960 p.135
3. Л.Меликсет-Бек / Кобер и его армянские и грузинские надписи / Известия Тбилисского государственного университета, 1926 г.
4. Дрампян, Ирина Рубеновна (1979). Фрески Кобайра (in Armenian). Советакан грох. p. 20. The frescoes of the Kobayr monastery (...) The frescoes of Kobayr refer to the second, i . e . to the Zakarian period. There has been a period when most of the structures of the monastery were covered with paintings. Now if we don't count the traces of painting on the other structures, only two monuments have preserved part of their decoration; and those are the Big Church and the Aisle adjoining it from the north. Thanks to the inscription referring to the construction of the building, we are informed of the date, which is the year 1282, and also the name of the donor, the monk George who was the son of Shahnshah, of the Zakarian family. Though we don't have documental informations concerning the paintings of the Aisle , the portraits of the donators whom we consider to be Shahnshah and his wife allow us to look upon the painting as one close to the date of the Big Church; the likeness in the artistic style confirms this suggestion. - From all the wall paintings of the Big Church only that of the altar has been preserved. As for the Aisle , here we can see not only the altar painting, but also remains of frescoes on the northern and western walls. The iconography of the altar paintings of the Big Church and the Aisle, on the whole, can be traced back to the Byzantine system of decoration. Having been already formed in the XI c., it has also some local peculiarities, the sources of which go back to the Armenian monumental art of earlier ages, beginning from the VII c. The set-up of both altar paintings are similar: the Church Fathers are in the lower rank, the Eucharist is in the middle. The difference lies in the upper circle, in the concha...
5. Hakobyan, Zaruhi A. (2021). "The Frescoes of the Haghpat Monastery in the Historical-Confessional Context of the 13th Century". Actual Problems of Theory and History of Art. 11: 264. doi:10.18688/aa2111-02-21. Thus, it could be assumed that in Haghpat there was painted a group of patrons, besides Khutlubuga and Sadun presumably including Zakare (from the right to left), Ivane, and Shahnshah.
6. Hakobyan, Zaruhi A. (2021). "The Frescoes of the Haghpat Monastery in the Historical-Confessional Context of the 13th Century". Actual Problems of Theory and History of Art. 11: 264. doi:10.18688/aa2111-02-21. In this regard, we could compare it with the other patron's composition in the small church of Kobayr (1282) with the members of Zakare family, where some of them are included inside the arches [6, pp. 12–13, fig. 34–35].
7. Дрампян, Ирина Рубеновна (1979). Фрески Кобайра (in Armenian). Советакан грох. Shahnshah , of the Zakarian family. Though we don't have documental informations concerning the paintings of the Aisle , the portraits of the donators whom we consider to be Shahnshah and his wife allow us to look upon the painting as one close to the date of the Big Church ; the likeness in the artistic style confirms this suggestion
8. Hakobyan, Zaruhi A. (2021). "The Frescoes of the Haghpat Monastery in the Historical-Confessional Context of the 13th Century". Actual Problems of Theory and History of Art. 11: 265. doi:10.18688/aa2111-02-21.
9. Evans, Helen C.; Anderson, Benjamin; Aslanian, Sebouh David; Balakian, Peter; Eastmond, Antony; Jones, Lynn A.; Mathews, Thomas F.; Piñon, Erin; Qiu, Earnestine M.; Richardson, Kristina L. (10 January 2022). Art and Religion in Medieval Armenia. Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 48–49. ISBN 978-1-58839-737-9.

External links

• About Kobayr monastery