PLACES OF WORSHIP

The Saint Jhon the Baptist Church is one of the oldest and most historical places in Yerevan, built in 1706-1710.

The Saint Jhon the Baptist Church is located in the center of the historical Kond district, at 9 Hovhannes Kozern Street. It was built in 1679 on the site of a church destroyed by a devastating earthquake.

It was ordered by the famous Melik Aghamal, a prominent Yerevan wealthy man, who was active in the socio-economic and political life of Yerevan in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Members of his family are associated with the construction initiatives of the Saint Poghos-Petros and Catholic churches in Yerevan, and, in particular, the construction of the Saint Jhon the Baptist Church in Kond.

The old church building was a three-nave basilica with two pairs of pillars, a semicircular altar on both sides of which was rectangular, vaulted vestries, without a dome, a spacious (24.2 x 16.8 m) structure. A small rotunda with columns of the bell tower rose on the gable roof.

In 1863, the church territory was fenced, a gate was built 15 m away, which is a 5.7 m high arched structure supported on a pair of pillars, with a cornice, a small pediment and a sculpture of a seraphim.

In 1973, one of the founders of Armenian national architecture, Rafael Israelyan, drew up a basic reconstruction project for the church, which, however, was not implemented due to the death of the architect. Work resumed in the 1980s. and the church was rebuilt (architect: Baghdasar Arzumanyan, engineer-designer: Avetik Teknedjian, builder: Mikael Hovhannisyan). With some interruptions, construction work continued until the 2010s. In 1997, a three-story bell tower was added to the western facade. The rotunda was removed, the nave was added, and the area was improved. The gate was demolished for reconstruction. It remains unrestored to this day.

The church is built of reddish-brown polished tuff on a low basalt foundation. The decorative elements of the church include various sculptures of the facade stones and the borders of the windows. The construction inscription is engraved on the top of the eastern facade, on four stones depicting a cross. Numerous khachkars are carved on the facades, the majority of which are dedicated to members of Melik Aghamal's family: his father Melik Tsatur, his brother Melik Aghaveli, his sister Khanum, his son Melik Naz, his daughters Satat, Khanbeku and others. On the southern facade of the church, under the cornice, is a khachkar dedicated to Catholicos Agheksandr I of Jughayetsi (1706-1714), during whose reign the Kond's St. Jhon the Baptist Church was built.