Early-Christian Połos-Petros Church in Zovuni in Armenia

Abstract

The remains of three early-Christian single-nave churches were preserved in Zovuni, a small village in the Ararat Plain in central Armenia. The church called Tukhmanuk' represents the basic type of the single-nave temple with the apse hidden in the massive wall. Probably it belongs to the oldest 4th century Christian objects in Armenia. Originally, the same structure could be found in St. Vardan's church; to which, however, a rectangular mausoleum was added in the second half of the 5th century. The most interesting is the Surb Połos-Petros church (St. Paul and Peter). Originally it used to be a building with a different destination; it might have been a part of the palace. In the 5th century, due to the addition of the apse, it was turned into a single-nave church vaulted with barrel vaults. At the end of the 6th or at the beginning of the 7th century another change took place: a cupola was erected above the centre of the nave. As a result, a new type of the single-nave church was created - the so-called a room with a dome'.