Saint Hripsime Church (Armenian: Սուրբ Հռիփսիմե եկեղեցի, Surb Hṙip‘simē yekeghetsi)[b] is a seventh century Armenian Apostolic church in the city of Vagharshapat (Etchmiadzin), Armenia. It is one of the oldest surviving churches in the country. The church was erected by Catholicos Komitas to replace the original mausoleum built by Catholicos Sahak the Great in 395 AD that contained the remains of the martyred Saint Hripsime to whom the church is dedicated. The current structure was completed in 618 AD. It is known for its fine Armenian-style architecture of the classical period, which has influenced many other Armenian churches since. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with other nearby churches, including Etchmiadzin Cathedral, Armenia's mother church, in 2000.
Background and foundation
It is located on a small elevation on the eastern outskirts of the town of Vagharshapat (Etchmiadzin), right next to the main road connecting it with capital Yerevan.[7][8][4] It was built outside the historic walls of ancient Vagharshapat.[9] It "rises, seemingly at random, from a largely empty plain."[10]
According to the traditional account found in Agathangelos, Hripsime, a Roman virgin, and her companions (including Gayane), fled to Armenia to avoid persecution by the Roman emperor Diocletian. In Armenia, Hripsime was tortured and killed by king Tiridates III after she refused his attempts to woo her. After Tiridates's conversion to Christianity in the early fourth century (dated 301 or 314 AD), the king and Gregory the Illuminator built a martyrium at the location of her martyrdom as an act of remorse.[11] It is, thus, one of the earliest Christian martyriums.[7] It is believed to have been half buried underground, with an aboveground canopy structure.[9]
Excavations inside the church during restoration works in 1958–59 unearthed black tuff fragments of an ornamented cornice under the supporting columns. They were immediately identified as having belonged to a pre-Christian Hellenistic structure, perhaps a temple, and quite similar in style to the cornice of the Garni Temple.[12][13][8] It led scholars to believe that a pagan temple may have once stood at the site or nearby.[c] Additionally, the original steps leading down to the underground crypt, located in front of the altar, were discovered.[12][15][d]
The original martyrium was destroyed by Sasanian king Shapur II and his Armenian Zoroastrian ally Meruzhan Artsruni c. 363,[16] along with Etchmiadzin Cathedral and other Christian sites.[17] Catholicos Sahak (Isaac) built a (new) chapel-martyrium in 395, which later historian Sebeos described as "too low and dark".[18][17][19] Archaeological excavations in 1976–78, led by Raffi Torosyan and Babken Arakelyan,[20] uncovered the foundations of a small single-nave (basilica) church building around 10 m (33 ft) east of the current church, which is likely the remains of the late fourth century structure.[21][e] Notably, Christian-style burials were also unearthed, which both scholars and the Armenian Church identified as Hripsime and her companions.[20][22][25][f]
Seventh century historian Sebeos recounts that CatholicosKomitas (r. 615–628) demolished the small martyrium and constructed the present church in the 28th year of the reign of Sassanian king Khosrow II (r. 590–628), which has been calculated as the year 618.[17][18] This dating has been widely accepted.[1][9][19][27][28][g] Two inscriptions record his role in its construction.[31] Some scholars believe Komitas, also a hymnographer, may have been the architect of the church.[32][33][34][35][h]
Inscriptions
One of the two inscriptions of Catholicos Komitas, on the western façade,[29] photographed by Garegin Hovsepian (1913).[37][38]
The church contains two engraved inscriptions in the erkat‘agiruncial script[39] recording the role of Catholicos Komitas in the construction of the church.[40][i] The inscriptions contain no dates. The first has been conventionally dated to 618.[37][29][42] Aleksandr Manucharyan suggested, based on its content, that the second was inscribed after the death of Komitas in 628.[32] Greenwood proposed a dating between 616/617 and 628 for both.[43] They are thus the second earliest extant Armenian inscriptions, behind the late fifth century inscription of the now-destroyed Tekor Church (dated c. 478–490).[j]
The first inscription, four lines long, is located in the central part of the exterior surface of the western wall,[47][43] and measures 202 cm × 60 cm (80 in × 24 in).[29][48] The porch and the bell tower, added on its western side in the 17th and 18th centuries, effectively conceal it.[49] Though previously photographed,[k] it is not easily visible, and a researcher noted as recently as 2018, that its exact location is not known.[49] It records Komitas's personal responsibility for the construction.[31] It reads:[37][29][43]
"I Komitas sacristan of saint Hṙi{w}p‘simē was summoned to the throne of saint Grēgor. I built the temple of these holy martyrs of Christ"[43] ⠀
The second inscription, in three lines and measuring 150 cm × 35 cm (59 in × 14 in),[48][50] is on the interior surface of the eastern apse,[51][31] behind the altar.[48][50] It was revealed under plaster during restoration works in 1898, when it was lightly damaged.[32][48] It was likely originally placed on the northern apse and transferred to the eastern ape, an unusual location, when the former was dilapidated.[32] It implores Christ to recognize Komitas's labors.[31] It reads:[48][51][43]
Ք[ՐԻՍՏՈ]Ս Ա[ՍՏՈՒԱ]Ծ ՅԻՇԵԱ ԶԿՈՄԻՏԱՍ ՀԱՅՈՑ ԿԱԹՈՂԻԿՍ ՇԻՆ ԱՒՂ ՍՐԲՈՅ ՀՌԻՓՍԻՄԵԻ
"Christ God, remember Komitas kat‘ołikos of Armenia, the builder of saint Hṙip‘simē" ⠀
17th and 18th centuries
Not much in known about the church's history in the medieval period, but inscriptions indicate that it was intermittently active.[52] An inscription from 1296 records that the release of the monastery from tithe and other taxes on cotton by local rulers.[53] Another inscription, from 1302, on the lintel of the western entrance records the donation of 1,000 silver coins.[54]
Arakel of Tabriz, a contemporary, recounted the state of the church in the early 17th century and provided details of its restoration (along with St. Gayane) by Catholicos Pilipos (r. 1633–1655).[58][39] Following the deportation of Armenians to Iran by Shah Abbas in 1604–05, it was "without inhabitants and fences".[59] Abandoned and defenseless, the church was also heavily dilapidated by that time.[9][27][60] During periods of neglect, neatly cut facing stones were quarried from the church.[61] Arakel recounts that it had no doors, no altar, the roof and walls had crumbled, and the foundations were shaken and dug up, while the interior was full of manure as livestock were driven into the church.[59] The restoration of Hripsime under Catholicos Pilipos "took three years, from start to finish, for the work began in the [Armenian] year 1100 (1651) and was finished in the year 1102 (1653) with great expenditures and tremendous labor."[62][19][m] This restoration encompassed the pediments, the roof of the dome, and saw the construction of a porch/portico or an open narthex (gavit) in front of the western entrance (upon which a bell tower was added in 1790).[51][64][9][n]
A 1783 watercolor of the churches of Etchmiadzin by Mikhail Matveevich Ivanov.[66] Then recently fortified St. Hripsime is on the upper left.[67][o]
Since its restoration in 1653, the church has regularly had a congregation.[69][p] Subsequent Catholicoi, Eghiazar (r. 1681–1691) and Nahapet (r. 1691–1705), further contributed to its revitalization by adding buildings and sponsoring manuscript production.[71] Six inscriptions, from the 1720s, engraved on its walls record the donations of salt, oil, incense, rice, candles, wine.[72][q] In the 17th and 18th centuries, monks at St. Hripsime were provided bread and clothing from the monastery of Echmiadzin, but the monastery also possessed its own farmland and livestock.[75]
Catholicos Simeon I of Yerevan (r. 1763–1780) raised a new cross on its dome in 1765,[23] and fortified the monastery in 1776 with a cob perimeter wall with corner towers, along with an arched entrance built in stone from the northern side.[51][76] In 1790 Catholicos Ghukas Karnetsi (r. 1780–1799) added a rotunda-shaped bell tower on the porch/narthex built by Pilipos in 1653.[51][64][r]
In 1894–95, under Catholicos Mkrtich Khrimian (r. 1893–1907), a two-story residence for the monks was built inside the monastery walls and the cob walls were replaced with that of stone in the eastern and southern sections.[51][79] The church itself underwent considerable renovation in 1898.[48][80][9]
In 1936, during the Soviet period, the church's foundations were reinforced and its roof, dome, the monastery walls and buildings were restored and the surrounding area underwent beautification.[51][1]
Restoration works then moved to the interior, where the removal of white plaster from its walls began in May 1958. Traces of limewater were removed through sandblasting.[51] The interior returned it to its original appearance of dark grey-brown tuff color.[51] Damaged stones were replaced. A new altarpiece and chandelier was designed by Rafayel Israyelian, with the former containing a painting of the Virgin Mary by Hovhannes Minasyan.[15] The restoration, started in 1955,[83] was officially completed by 1962.[84] The removal of the plasterwork furthermore revealed a system of 8 large and 16 small squinches under the circular drum.[1]
The church underwent additional restoration in 1985, which was funded by Mari Hyusisian-Mndigian.[85] The bell tower was restored in 1986–87 by Artsrun Galikyan and Avetik Teknetchyan.[85] Galikyan also designed new wooden doors for the church.[85]
Excavations in 1959 revealed the original floor around 40 cm (16 in) beneath the contemporary flooring surface,[12][22][s] and, consequently, the floor was lowered.[1]
Crypt and other burials
The tomb of St. Hripsime
The tomb of St. Hripsime is located in an underground vaulted chamber under the eastern apse.[86] It is accessed through the chamber on the northeastern corner.[87] The current gravestone, dating to 1986, depicts her holding a cross.[87] Scholars like Yeremian and Mnatsakanian have dated the crypt to the early fifth century.[88] Mathews suggested that it "appears integral to the seventh century church".[61] Maranci suggested links to the relations to building practice in Constantinople and particularly Palestine.[86]
Catholicos Komitas was presumably buried inside the church. A stone slab before the altar may be his tombstone.[89] Catholicos Pilipos, who restored the church in 1653, was buried in the northern apse inside the church after refusal by the Iranian ruler of Erivan to permit his burial at Etchmiadzin.[90] His marble tombstone was erected by Catholicos Yeprem I in the early 1800s.[89]
During restoration works in 1958–59, two graves were found in front of the western entrance, where, according to historical accounts, two Catholicoi were buried: Astvatsatur (r. 1715–1725) and Karapet II (r. 1726–1729). Their tombstones had disappeared in the early 1800s, and new marble ones were erected during the 1950s restoration.[89] To the east of the church, a cemetery survives with around 50 tombstones, including 30 with inscriptions, dating from the 17th to the 19th centuries. The perimeter wall, built in the 1890s, divides it into two. One notable burial is vardapetStepanos Lehatsi (d. 1689), a member of the Etchmiadzin brotherhood.[91]
The church has largely stood intact and unaltered throughout history.[19] The most significant additions have been the portico and the bell tower in 1653 and 1790, respectively.[49]
It is externally rectangular with a cruciformtetraconch plan with four corner chambers (sacristies). It has two entrances, located on the western and southern sides. It is unique for the deep double angular niches on its exterior walls on the north and south.[93][1] Its appearance has been described as "squat and compact"[94] and "near-pyramidal."[95]
The church measures 22.8 by 17.7 metres (75 by 58 ft)[2][3] and rises around 23 m (75 ft) (inside height under the dome).[4][t] Although small in size, it has been described as monumental in structure, standing out distinctly against the plain.[97] Its southern wall is 53 cm (21 in) longer than the northern (22.87 and 22.34 m).[61] The dimensions and positions of windows, doors, apses, and niches vary throughout the church, which can be explained by successive building phases.[61] It is built of tuff stone and stands on a stepped stylobate.[98]
The church contains minimal ornamentation. In the exterior, they are mostly limited to carved arched friezes over the windows,[94][4] stylized with floral and geometric motifs.[47] Inside, the cupola contains long decorative rays radiating from the center.[61] Beneath the dome, there are fan-shaped decorations above the three-quarter niches.[15]
Dome and cupola
The dome has an inside diameter of 9.4 m (31 ft) and is sixteen-sided externally with twelve windows.[4] Some scholar believed that the cupola dates to a later period, usually the 10th or 11th centuries,[9][1] based on irregularities in measurement.[61] However, mason's marks matching those in the body of the church were discovered during restoration in the 1950s that suggested dating to the seventh century.[99][61] Additionally, decorative rays radiating from the center of the cupola and the band of concentric circles at the base also suggest a seventh century dating, as such are found in other contemporary churches of Talin and Mastara.[61]Varazdat Harutyunyan suggested that the dome was restored only externally in the 1650s.[15]
Reception
The church is "one of the most admired monuments of early medieval Armenia"[30] and "one of the most refined examples of Armenian architecture".[98] The tenth century Catholicos Hovhannes Draskhanakerttsi described the church as a wonderful and splendid structure.[100][101] The 20th century Catholicos Vazgen I described it "the most magnificent of our ancient shrines."[84] Often called a masterpiece,[102] its proportions have been broadly admired.[u]
19th century European visitors similarly held it in high regard. Frédéric DuBois found its "simplicity, massiveness, and grandeur" to be the "key elements of the Armenian style."[106]H. F. B. Lynch, visiting in 1893, saw Hripsime as superior to Etchmiadzin Cathedral because of its geometrically plain exterior.[107]Harold Buxton found it to be "[the most] perfect specimen of the best age of Armenian architecture."[108]Fridtjof Nansen wrote that the proportions of its interior and exterior "give an impression of balance and harmony seldom equaled."[4]
Rouben Paul Adalian called it "exceptionally beautiful", admiring the "utter harmony and perfect balance of its proportions", and suggested that along with St. Gayane, it is as a model of the "austere beauty of early Armenian ecclesiastical architecture."[109]
Imitations
The church is not the earliest example of this architectural form, however, the form is widely known in architectural history as the "Hripsime-type" since the church is the best-known example of the form.[9] It has also been variously named "Jvari-type" or "Jvari-Hripsime-type" for Jvari in Georgia.[110] Despite this, these words can be refuted by the fact that at the end of the 6th century an Armenian church was built in Avan with the same style as Jvari and St. Hripsime Church. Some scholars argue that Jvari's date of building is incorrect and Javri was build from 600-604/5 and 627-642[111]
Certain elements of its design have found their way into public buildings during the Soviet period, including the Government House[123] the pedestal of Mother Armenia, which houses a military museum,[124] and the niches of the Matenadaran,[125] all in Yerevan.
It appeared on the 200Armenian dram banknotes (in circulation from 1993 to 2004)[129]
A relief of the church is sculpted on the headquarters of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America next to the St. Vartan Cathedral in Manhattan, New York
^Alexander Sahinian, who oversaw the excavations after the initial find, suggested that a pagan temple must have stood on its location or nearby.[8][13] He suggested that the temple was devoted to Mihr-Apollo.[8]Babken Arakelyan proposed that the fragments came from an unknown building in Vagharshapat and were used in its foundations,[14] while Varazdat Harutyunyan agreed with Sahinian that the fragments likely came from a pagan temple.[15] Eremian opined that the fragments point to the existence of a pagan temple on its location.[9]
^The excavated sections were covered with glass for public display.[12][15]
^Additionally, sarcophagi, pieces of a four-sided stele, winepresses, wells, and water pipes were discovered.[22] The monastery wall, built in 1894 was built through the single-nave church, separating it into two parts.[23] In 1997 an open altar-line monument was erected next to the single-nave church.[24]
^The Book of Letters contains a letter from 608 which mentions a priest named Samuel of St. Hripsime, which indicates that the maryrium/chapel was an active church.[26]
^Some scholars have placed it circa 618, such as Stone and Kouymjian in 617,[29] and Maranci in 618/619.[30]
^Adalian suggested that while that the name of the architect remains unknown, "it would not be speculation to say that the great churchmen of the era provided much input and the necessary leadership."[36]
^There are two additional heavily damaged inscriptions on the western façade (with only individual letters legible), which Karo Ghafadaryan and Aleksandra Yeremian attributed to Catholicos Komitas.[41]
^The inscriptions of Hripsime are explicitly called the second earliest Armenian inscription by Greenwood,[44]Michael E. Stone,[45] and Arsen Harutyunyan.[39] The Tekor inscription is now lost.[46]
^Pilipos's 1653 restoration is recorded on an inscription on a khachkar embedded into the western façade.[63]
^A 1653 dossal (embroidered altar curtain), now held at the History Museum of Armenia, was made in this period. It depicts St. Hripsime and her companions.[63][65]
^Somewhat in contradiction, Jean Chardin, who visited between 1664 and 1677, wrote that the churches of Hripsime and Gayane are both in a "halfruined state, and it is long since any service has been performed in either."[70]
^There is also an encrypted epigraph from 1721/22, left by future Catholicos Hakob V of Shamakhi (r. 1759–1763), is located on the left niche of the eastern façade.[73] An undated inscription by Aleksandr vardapet, who is most likely the later Catholicos Aleksandr II (r. 1753–55), records the donation of fifty sheep as breeding stock.[74]
^Some sources erroneously state that the bell tower was built in 1880.[9][27] An inscription by Catholicos Ghukas definitively dates it to 1790.[23]
^Varazdat Harutyunyan wrote that it was known beforehand that the floor had been raised nearly 1 m (3 ft 3 in), perhaps during the 1653 restoration of Catholicos Pilipos.[15]
^John Mason Neale provided 84 feet (26 m) by 59.5 feet (18.1 m) and its height to the top of the cross at 104.5 feet (31.9 m).[96]
^Dalton, Ormonde Maddock (1925). East Christian art: a survey of the monuments. Hacker Art Books. p. 33. ...in Armenia, such as the cathedral of Edgmiatsin, the church at Bagaran, and the Hripsimeh church at Vagharshapat...
^Svajian, Stephen G. (1977). A Trip Through Historic Armenia. GreenHill Pub. p. 85. According to Lynch, the interior of the chapel has the features of St. Hripsimeh Church in Etchmiadzin.
^Hacikyan, Agop Jack; Basmajian, Gabriel; Franchuk, Edward S.; Ouzounian, Nourhan (2000). The Heritage of Armenian Literature: From the Oral Tradition to the Golden Age. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. p. 121. ISBN9780814328156. Recent excavations around the Church of St. Hripsimé, near Etchmiadzin in Armenia, have uncovered the remains of several tortured women who had been buried after the manner of the early Christians, and tools used in viticulture were unearthed on the same occasion. This would seem to support the story related by Agathangelos.
^Atayan, Robert (2013) [1959]. "Professional Armenian Vocal Music [A lecture delivered at the International Music Council of UNESCO (June 3-5, 1970), at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon.]". The Armenian Neume System of Notation. Translated by Vrej Nersessian. Routledge. p. 234. The seventh century Komitas was also a great church dignitary: catholicos, as well as architect, poet and musician. He was the architect of the church of St Hrip'sime near Echmiadzin, one of the finest monuments of early Armenian classical architecture which he himself dates to the year 618 and which still stands today.
^Stone, Michael E. (2006). "Armenian Inscriptions of the Fifth Century from Nazareth". Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, and Armenian Studies: Collected Papers. Volume II. Leuven: Peeters Publishers. p. 772. ISBN9789042916449. The Armenian script, traditionally invented in 404 C.E. [...] The oldest dated Armenian inscription surviving is the Tekor inscription of the end of the fifth century. The next one is the dedication of S. Hripsime Church of 618 C.E.
^"Saint Hripsime Church". hushardzan.am. Service for the Protection of Historical Environment and Cultural Museum Reservations, Ministry of Culture of Armenia. 1 February 2012. Archived from the original on 28 February 2014.
^ abcdefghMathews, Thomas F. (1995). "Observations on St. Hṙipsimē". Art and Architecture in Byzantium and Armenia. Aldershot: Ashgate. pp. 203-205. ISBN9780860785378.
^Krylova, Margarita (2010). "Creative Discoveries of the Russian Artist-travelers". Tretyakov Gallery. Archived from the original on 30 March 2023. ...big decorative watercolour pictures such as "View of Three Churches against the Backdrop of Mount Ararat in Armenia" (1783)... features the buildings of the Echmiadzin monastery in one of Armenia's oldest cities, Vagharshapat
^Izmailova, Tatyana; Ayvazyan, Mariam (1962). Искусство Армении [The Art of Armenia] (in Russian). Moscow: Iskusstvo. p. 32. Небольшая по своим размерам, но монументальная постройка четко вырисовывается на фоне равнины.
^Yovhannēs Drasxanakertc‘i (1987). History of Armenia. Translated by Krikor H. Maksoudian. Atlanta, Georgia: Scholars Press. p. 97. 27. At about this time the great patriarch Komitas adorned the martyrium of the blessed Hrip'simeank' which formerly had been a dark and small building, with a more wonderful befitting respectable and splendid structure.
^Arzumanyan, Ashot M.[in Russian] (1979). Арагац [Aragats] (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetsky Pisatel. p. 48. Храм Рипсимэ. Красота и простота воедино слиты в этом, одном из самых прекрасных сооружений архитектурного комплекса города. Совершенны его пропорции, лаконичен его декор. Арки, ниши, выступы, купол, венчающий здание, — все создает ощущение ритма, гармонии, величественности.
^Khrushkova, Liudmila G. (2015). "Notes on a new publication on the religious architecture of Caucasus in the 7th century". Antiquité Tardive. 23. Association pour l'Antiquité tardive: 413. doi:10.1484/J.AT.5.109392. ISSN1250-7334. ..."type of Jvari", "type of Jvari-Ripsime", "type of Hripsime", etc.
^"Սուրբ Հռիփսիմե վանք". ejmiatsin.am (in Armenian). Municipality of Ejmiatsin. 2 March 2012.
^Wharton, Alyson (2015). The Architects of Ottoman Constantinople: The Balyan Family and the History of Ottoman Architecture. I.B. Tauris. p. 62. ISBN9781780768526. ...Cathedral of the Holy Cross (915–21) on Akhtamar in Lake Van, which follows the Surp Hripsime model...
^Cheterian, Vicken (2015). Open Wounds: Armenians, Turks and a Century of Genocide. Oxford University Press. p. 239. ISBN9780190263508.
^Hasratyan, Murad (2002). "Վարագավանք [Varagavank]". Yerevan State University Institute for Armenian Studies (in Armenian). "Christian Armenia" Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 8 October 2014. ...Վարագավանքի գլխ.՝ Ս. Աստվածածին եկեղեցին (XI դ.), որն ունի «հռիփսիմեատիպ» կառույցների հորինվածքը...
^Hunt, Lucy-Anne (2008). "Eastern Christian Iconographic and Architectural Traditions: Oriental Orthodox". In Parry, Ken (ed.). The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity. John Wiley & Sons. p. 394. ...was influential in Armenia and early imitations of it are found in Georgia...
^Barskaya, T. N. "Армянская церковь в Ялте". crimea.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 29 September 2023. За основу архитекторами была взята церковь святой Рипсиме, находящаяся в Эчмиадзине (618 г.).
^"Armenia!". metmuseum.org. 16 October 2017. Archived from the original on 30 January 2025. One of the landmark church buildings of New York City, the cathedral was modeled after the seventh-century church of St. Hripsime in Armenia.
^Emin, Gevorg (1967). Семь песен об Армении [Seven Songs About Armenia] (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetsky Pisatel. p. 142. Звартноц и Гагикашен возродились в великолепном здании оперы, храм Рипсиме — в Доме правительства... = Zvartnots and Gagikashen were revived in the magnificent building of the opera, the church of Saint Hripsime—in the Government House...
^Healey, Barth (15 October 1989). "Pastimes: Stamps". The New York Times. ...the 45-kopeck issue shows the church of St. Hripsime, an Armenian masterpiece built in 618...
Strzygowski, Josef (1918). Die Baukunst der Armenier und Europa [The Architecture of the Armenians and of Europe] Volume I (in German). Vienna: Kunstverlag Anton Schroll & Co. pp. 92–94.
![Grigory Gagarin, 1847[131]](File:Grigory_Gagarin._Escarmouche_de_Persans_et_de_Kurdes.jpg)
![Painting of the church by Vardges Sureniants, 1897[132]](File:%D5%80%D5%BC%D5%AB%D6%83%D5%BD%D5%AB%D5%B4%D5%A5%D5%AB_%D5%BE%D5%A1%D5%B6%D6%84%D5%A8_(1897).jpg)
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![The church on a 1691 map by Ottoman Armenian traveler Eremia Chelebi.[133]](File:Hripsime_church_Eremya_%C3%87elebi.png)
![from Ghevont Alishan's 1890 book Ayrarat[134]](File:Alishan_Hripsime.jpg)
![c. 1900[135]](File:%D5%8D%D5%B8%D6%82%D6%80%D5%A2_%D5%80%D5%BC%D5%AB%D6%83%D5%BD%D5%AB%D5%B4%D5%A5_%D5%A5%D5%AF%D5%A5%D5%B2%D5%A5%D6%81%D5%AB_(%D5%8E%D5%A1%D5%B2%D5%A1%D6%80%D5%B7%D5%A1%D5%BA%D5%A1%D5%BF)_-_St._Hripsime_Church_(Vagharshapat),_late_1800s_-_early_1900s.jpg)
![From H. F. B. Lynch's 1901 book on Armenia[136]](File:Ripsime_Lynch.png)
![a 1911 photo reproduced in Strzygowski's 1918 book[3]](File:Strzygowski_Hripsime.png)
![Refugees of the Armenian genocide buried near the church (1919)[137][138]](File:National_geographic_november_1919_Refugee_burial_ground_outside_Etchmiadzin.jpg)
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