🇦🇲 BARDZRAKASH Monastery ~ hiking to a fantastic hidden ruin!

This gorgeous ruin of a monastery was dedicated to St. Gregory the Illuminator, the first leader of the Armenian Church and pation saint of the Armenian people

There are 2 churches and scattering of remains including some beautiful old and detailed khatchkars

There is no way to date this church, they dont know if its created in 10th c. or before… looks like by the inscriptions the earliest is from the Zakarid period in the early 1200s

They say that the monastery was abondoned as the Mongols came through Armenia

DSEGH

We got dropped off at Dsegh town centre, there were not many ppl around but it had such a nice feel to the place, I instantly felt at ease and excited to be there! New adventure perhaps to explore a new monastery for me that I hadnt been to…

So this is the town centre roundabout, not much going on a few pieces of art here and there

We began walking through the village streets, mostly gravel roads leading to many properties which were farms with cute little animals running around

We passed a school which to our surprise was quite large, having a look at the map, saw that this town wasnt as small and quiet as I felt it to be!

More farms with haystacks piled high

The above land gaspipes ae a lot more prevalent here and obvious lining the streets next to all the farms

We got to the paddock area to cross towards the woods and looks like there was some sort of fire that recently hit this area – still looked beautiful!

Beginning of the walk, pretty flat and easy, as this was my first hike since my achilles injury in march, I was happy with this….

THEN…

The terrain started to change… becoming rocky and steep, it tested my ankle and happy to say I passed! this was a good test in my healing proces

The beautiful greens and browns of mother nature

St. Haroutyun Chapel – also this area has the ancestral cemetery of the Mamigonian family and most likely a burial vault

The first sighting of the Moanstery!

The building in the center is the 13th century Holy Astvatsatsin – the main church, of which the entrance, parts of the southern and western walls, sections of flying arches, and pillars are still well preserved.

Holy Astvatsatsin and it’s gavit are both constructed of large, finely cut slabs of felsite stone

I was amazed at the beautiful detailing on the fallen down slabs of stone

It was really sad as there were so many fallen down pieces of stone and the surounding walls looked ready to fall if it wasnt for the supporting scaffolding

We hung out for quite a bit enjoying the atomsphere of the place

Someone had created a small chapel in one of the walls and had candles and pictures lined along the walls – small and tight doorway to get into here but is worth it!