PLACES OF WORSHIP

Saint Jacob Church is dedicated to the Patriarch of Mtsbin’s Saint Jacob.

1695

State index: 1.12.6

Saint Jacob Church is located on 6th Street in Kanaker. It is a functioning church. It is believed to have been built on the site of a church destroyed by the devastating earthquake of 1679 in the Ararat Valley. It was partially renovated in 1798. It was the parish church of Kanaker village.

The church was built of Yerevan black and red smooth tuff. It has a vaulted, triple-nave basilica composition with pair of gables and pair of sacristies. The gables are cross-shaped in cut, the aisles and aisle-bearing arches are arrow-shaped. A small six-column rotunda rises on a gabled roof. Adjacent to the western facade are four wall sections with arches stretched between them, which were intended to build a three-arched open hall, but the construction remained unfinished. The external dimensions are 16.2 x 23.8 m, internal dimensions are 13.7 x 17.2 m, the height of the middle nave is 10.5 m.

The western main entrance to the church was built like the Saint Virgin Mary Church in Kanaker. The entrance opened into the central one of the three arched niches of the facade, and khachkars were built into the edge niches. The second entrance to the church opened from the south. Lighting is provided by windows opened in all walls. The altar window has a cross-shaped rich decoration. The interior space is decorated with New Testament thematic frescoes (18th century, 1739).

On the walls are built cross-stones: Sahak (1621), Father David (17th century), Heropet (Hayrapet) (16th century), etc. There are inscriptions with the names of the patrons who built the church's gables. The southeastern gable was built by Gyulnazar, and the northeastern one by Avag and Grigor.

On the southwestern side of the church, the gate built in 1868 by master Simeon Arnjetsi has been preserved.

In the cemetery surrounding the church, the cross-stone built by the famous medieval stonemason Trdat of Minakhatun (16th century), Hovhannes, with an Armenian-Georgian inscription (1750), Grigor Yuzbash (1767), Harutyun (1789), NatalIa (1833) and other inscribed tombstones have been preserved. The last one is the marble tombstone of the one-year-old daughter of the first governor of the Armenian province (1830-1838), Major General, governor Barsegh Behbutyan (Vasil Behbutov).

In the early 2000s, the church was renovated, the territory was improved and fenced.