Zvartnots Cathedral ruins
Ruins of a 7th-century circular cathedral
- Area Armavir
- Type Historic site
- Time needed 45m
Zvartnots was a vast circular cathedral built in the 640s between Yerevan and Echmiadzin, and it stood for about three centuries before an earthquake brought it down. What remains is a ring of fallen and re-erected columns on the Ararat plain, a UNESCO site.
Open in the planner →Getting there
Twenty-five minutes from central Yerevan on the Echmiadzin road, signed from the highway. Any Vagharshapat marshrutka passes the turning.
What you see
The foundations and a partial ring of columns, re-erected in the twentieth century, which give a sense of a three-storey rotunda around 45 metres high. Carved capitals with eagles and the builder's monogram lie among the stones, and a small museum on site holds a reconstruction model and the sundial. Ararat fills the view south.
What to pair it with
Echmiadzin, five minutes further on, and the Hripsime and Gayane churches. Khor Virap is on the same side of the city.
When to go
Morning for the Ararat view behind the columns. There is no shade at all on the site, which matters in July and August. Closed Mondays.
What is hard about it
It is a ruin, and visitors expecting a building are often underwhelmed — twenty minutes is enough for many people. The site is flat, exposed and hot. The reconstruction of what it looked like is contested among archaeologists, so the model is one theory rather than the answer.
Common questions
What happened to Zvartnots Cathedral?
It collapsed, most likely in a tenth-century earthquake. It had stood for roughly 300 years.
Is Zvartnots worth visiting?
As a ruin with the Ararat backdrop and on the way to Echmiadzin, yes. Allow 45 minutes, not a morning.
Is Zvartnots the airport or the cathedral?
Both carry the name. The cathedral ruins are a separate site several kilometres from the airport.
Nearby
- Echmiadzin CathedralMother church of the Armenian Apostolic Church
- St Hripsime ChurchModel of classical 7th-century Armenian architecture
- St Gayane ChurchHarmonious 7th-century church in Echmiadzin
- Shoghakat ChurchSmall 17th-century church in Echmiadzin
- Sardarapat MemorialBattle memorial and ethnography museum
- MetsamorBronze Age metallurgy site and museum
More of the same kind
- Garni TempleFirst-century Hellenistic temple above the Azat gorge
- PtghnavankRoofless 7th-century basilica above the Kasakh
- DvinRuins of Armenia's early medieval capital
- Areni-1 CaveCave where the world's oldest leather shoe and winery were found