Creating Christian Sacred Spaces: The Armenian Case (4th–7th Centuries)
EAST OF BYZANTIUM LECTURE
This lecture offers a case study on the creation of Christian sacred spaces in Armenia, from its official conversion at the beginning of the 4th century to the definitive establishment of Arab rule at the end of the 7th century. This is a complex and turbulent transitional period for all of Christendom, during which the gradual transformation of the religious landscape is carried out through the marking of both physical grounds and human minds, conceived as a single space of the Church. Accordingly, any theological concept relating to the Church in its universal and eternal sense becomes applicable to this space. However, Christianity was adopted in Armenia largely by adapting to the existing political and social structures, as well as to the previous local religious traditions. Moreover, the fluctuating historical conditions inherent to the contact zones between the Roman/Byzantine and Iranian worlds profoundly shaped the formation of Armenian Christian identity and thought. All these factors largely defined the specificities of the concept and architectural organization of Armenian sanctuaries in the period under consideration.
The lecture is structured around three main themes. The first theme focuses on the foundation of Armenian ecclesiastical institutions connected with the earliest Christian sanctuaries. The latter’s establishment, character, and geographical distribution will be analyzed using source evidence and situated within the historical context of the region during the first decades of the 4th century.
The second theme addresses the adoption in Armenia of sacred models originating from the Holy Land, particularly Jerusalem, with the aim of creating a ‘New Jerusalem’ in Armenia at the beginning of the 5th century. The theological motivations underlying this initiative will be examined within the context of the contemporary political situation. The Armenian case will also be compared with similar examples among neighboring Christian countries in the Caucasus.
The third theme explores the development of major ecclesiastical complexes from the 4th to the 7th centuries, which served as the household and see of the Catholicoi of Armenia. Three selected examples – Ashtishat, Dvin, and Zvartnots – will be analyzed within the framework of a new urban concept: the ‘church-city’. Inheriting the tradition of the ancient ‘temple-towns’, the spatial organization and architecture of these religious centers were designed, drawing inspiration from the sacred model of Jerusalem perceived as quintessential Christian Temple, Church, and Holy City.
Nazénie Garibian is head of the Medieval Art Studies Department at the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts Matenadaran and Professor at the State Academy of Fine Arts of Armenia. She earned her PhD in Art History from the École Pratique des Hautes Études at Sorbonne University in Paris (2005), with a thesis on the evolving relationship between ecclesiology and church typology in the early Christian period.
She has taught at Yerevan State University, French University of Armenia and at Gevorgian Theological Seminary at the Holy See of Etchmiadzin; held seminars and lectures as invited scholar and visiting professor in different European universities (Louvain-la-Neuve ([Belgium], Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes [Paris], Bolognia, Tuscia, and Ca’ Foscari Universities [Italy], Aristotle University [Greece]); participated in various national and international conferences and workshops; curated exhibitions in Armenia, France and Italy; participated as senior scholar in the Traveling Research Seminar Program “Crossing Frontiers: Christians and Muslims and their Art in Eastern Anatolia and Caucasus”, organized by London Courtauld Institute of Art with the support of the Paul Getty Foundation (2014-2018); and authored and edited three monographs and numerous articles in collective books and journals. In 2019-2022, she edited the “Yearbook of Academy of Fine Arts”. She is co-opted member of the steering committee of the International Association of Armenian Studies (AIEA); Associate member of Centre d’Histoire et Civilisation Byzantine at the Collège de France; Member of the scientific councils of the Matenadaran and the Academy of Fine Arts of Armenia; Editorial board member of the Journal ‘MEMAS-Matenadaran’ and Editorial foreign board member of the DiSCi series – Studi antropologici, published by the Dipartimento di Storia, Culture, civiltà of the University of Bologna (Italy).
Dr. Garibian specializes in the early Christian and early modern periods of Armenian and Caucasian history, art, and culture. Her research focuses primarily on the comparative analysis of written sources and the material heritage of architectural monuments and works of art, considered within the broader political, cultural, and religious context of their time. She is also interested in the study of Christian holy places from both theological and archaeological perspectives, and in their relationship to Jerusalem and the Holy Land.
She has two books forthcoming in 2025 and 2026: one dedicated to the construction of Christian identity in Armenia, and the other, a collective monograph, devoted to the history and architecture of the seventh-century ecclesiastical complex of Zvartnots.
This lecture will take place live on ZOOM, followed by a question and answer period.
East of Byzantium 