Friday, July 11, 2008

Ten Years On, Iran's Ancient Armenian Religious Church-Monastery Complex Joins Lviv, Ukraine's Armenian Church-Complex On UNESCO World Heritage List

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Fortified Armenian monasteries in Iran were added to the new sites inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List

"The Armenian Monastic Ensembles in Iran, in the north-west of the country, consists of three monastic ensembles of the Armenian Christian faith: St Thaddeus and St Stepanos and the Chapel of Dzordzor. These edifices - the oldest of which, St Thaddeus, dates back to the 7th century – are examples of outstanding universal value of the Armenian architectural and decorative traditions. They bear testimony to very important interchanges with the other regional cultures, in particular the Byzantine, Orthodox and Persian. Situated on the south-eastern fringe of the main zone of the Armenian cultural space, the monasteries constituted a major centre for the dissemination of that culture into Azerbayjan and Persia [today's Iran]. They are the last regional remains of this culture that are still in a satisfactory state of integrity and authenticity. Furthermore, as places of pilgrimage, the monastic ensembles are living witnesses of Armenian religious traditions through the centuries."


The Armenian Monastic Ensembles in Iran [2008]

L'viv, Ukraine – the Ensemble of the Historic Centre [1998]

Kyiv, Ukraine: Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra [1990, 2005]

*

Complete UNESCO World Heritage Site List, Updated to July 10, 2008.

The List of World Heritage in Danger, July 10, 2008.

*

Virtual Museum of Komitas Vardapet, 20th Century Composer and Master of Armenian Classical Music [a beautiful web-site, in Armenian, English, and Russian, and from Armenia, Future European Union.]

*















The Armenian Cathedral complex in northwestern Iran (top two photos) was fortified; while the Armenian Cathedral complex in Lviv, West Ukraine (interior photo) had no need to be fortified: Lviv (Leopolis) being a European Civilization center of religious tolerance for over 750 years.

Photo credits: (c) A. Prepis and UNESCO World Heritage Program; and Lviv-Life.com. With thanks. See also Lviv Ecotour images.

*

Thankfully, there was somewhat more than Israeli and Iranian rehearsals for proto-nuclear warfare in the news this week ... [and with apologies for the "mental recession" that has kept me from posting this week despite the arrival of the fought-over government "economic stimulus payment"].

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home