Gavit

{{Short description|Vestibular feature of Mediaeval Armenian monastic architecture}} {{other uses|Gavit (surname)}} [[File:Gavit of Geghard (brighter).jpg|thumb|Gavit of Geghard Monastery in Armenia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Dated 1215–1225, it has a ''muqarnas'' vault at the center.]] In a medieval Armenian monastery, a '''''gavit''''' ({{langx|hy|գավիթ}}; gawit’) or '''''zhamatun''''' (Armenian: {{lang|hy|ժամատուն; žamatun}}) is a congressional room or mausoleum added to the entrance of a church, and therefore often contiguous to its west side. It served as narthex (entrance to the church), mausoleum and assembly room, somewhat like the narthex or lite of a Byzantine church.<ref>{{cite book |page=84 |title=The Caucasian knot: the history & geopolitics of Nagorno-Karabagh |author1=Levon Chorbajian |author2=Patrick Donabédian |author3=Claude Mutafian |publisher=Zed Books |year=1994 |ISBN=1-85649-288-5}}</ref> As an architectural element, the gavit was distinct from the church, and built afterwards.<ref name="OG"/> Its first known instance is at the Horomos Monastery, dated to 1038, when it was already called "žamatun".<ref name="EV">{{cite journal |last1=Vardanyan |first1=Edda |title=The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit' Structures in Armenien Architecture |journal=Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz |date=1 January 2015 |page=207 |url=https://www.academia.edu/42320635/The_%C5%BDamatun_of_Ho%E1%B9%99omos_and_the_%C5%BDamatun_Gawit_Structures_in_Armenien_Architecture}}</ref><ref name="OG">{{cite journal |last1=Ghazarian |first1=Armen |authorlink=Armen Kazaryan |last2=Ousterhout |first2=Robert |title=A Muqarnas Drawing from Thirteenth-Century Armenia and the Use of Architectural Drawings during the Middle Ages |journal=Muqarnas |date=2001 |volume=18 |pages=145–146 |doi=10.2307/1523305 |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/1523305 |issn=0732-2992|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The term "gavit" started to replace the term ''zhamatun''' from 1181, when it first appears in an inscription at the Sanahin Monastery.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Vardanyan |first1=Edda |title=The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit' Structures in Armenien Architecture |journal=Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz |date=1 January 2015 |page=208 |url=https://www.academia.edu/42320635/The_%C5%BDamatun_of_Ho%E1%B9%99omos_and_the_%C5%BDamatun_Gawit_Structures_in_Armenien_Architecture}}</ref>

==History== {{multiple image|perrow=1/2|total_width=300|caption_align=center | align = right | direction =horizontal | image1 = Church of St. Amenaprkitch (3) and its gavit (4) Sanahin Monastery.jpg | image2 = Սանահինի վանք 12.jpg | image3 = Amenaprkitch Church (Sanahin) interior.jpg | footer=The ''gavit'' of the Church of St. Amenaprkitch (left, built 1181) and the church itself, to which it is adjoined (right, built in 966), with corresponding plan. Sanahin Monastery.<ref name="JBK48">{{cite book |last1=Kiesling |first1=John Brady |authorlink=John Brady Kiesling |title=Rediscovering Armenia: An Archaeological/touristic Gazetteer and Map Set for the Historical Monuments of Armenia |date=2001 |publisher=Tigran Mets |isbn=978-99930-52-28-9 |page=48 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cZZpAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA48 |language=en |quote=The gavit of S. Astvatsatsin was built by Prince Vache Vachutian (a more southerly dynast) in 1211, that of Amenaprkich in 1181 under the sponsorship of the Kyurikian family.}}</ref> }} The ''gavit'', the distinctive Armenian style of narthex, appeared in the tenth and eleventh centuries.<ref>Medieval Armenian architecture: constructions of race and nation Christina Maranci – 2001 "Unlike Strzygowski, who stressed the importance of race and nation in the formation of architecture, ... Another structure at Ani also provided Baltrusaitis with an ogive — the narthex or gavit' located at the south side of the church."</ref> The first structures in the 10th century were simple quadrangular buildings without columns and protected by wooden roofs, used as dynastic necropoleis.<ref name="EV207">{{cite journal |last1=Vardanyan |first1=Edda |title=The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit' Structures in Armenien Architecture |journal=Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz |date=1 January 2015 |page=207 |url=https://www.academia.edu/42320635/The_%C5%BDamatun_of_Ho%E1%B9%99omos_and_the_%C5%BDamatun_Gawit_Structures_in_Armenien_Architecture |quote=From the end of the 10th century, simple quadrangular buildings without columns but with wooden roofs appeared adjacent to churches (mainly on the western side), serving as dynastic necropoleis. No particular name was given to them. No particular name was given to them. The oldest of such centrally-planned four-columned ante-ecclesial structures is that of Hoṙomos Monastery, built in 1038 by King Yovhannēs-Smbat together with the Upper Church of St. John (Surb-Yovhannēs). It has a rectangular ground plan and four central columns. The ceiling is shaped like an octagonal cone and is decorated with sumptuous reliefs, while externally an eight-column rotunda rises above the entire construction.}}</ref> From the 11th century, the first known ''zhamatun'' with a four-columned structure appears in Hoṙomos Monastery, built in 1038 by King Yovhannēs-Smbat.<ref name="EV207"/> The vault was in the shape of an octagonal cone, and was decorated with superb reliefs.<ref name="EV207"/>

Many of the first ''zhamatun'' or ''gavits'' were located in the south of the Armenia in the region of Syunik. The type of construction changed during the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, as found in the monasteries of Saghmosavank of Haritchavank, or Hovhannavank Monastery. They changed again in the late thirteenth century as can be seen in monasteries such as Gandzasar, and gradually ceased to be built in the late Middle Ages.

The general structure of the gavit, with its nine-bayed plan is typical of the nine-bayed plan of mosques from the Abassid period onward, which can be seen from Spain to Central Asia.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ghazarian |first1=Armen |last2=Ousterhout |first2=Robert |title=A Muqarnas Drawing from Thirteenth-Century Armenia and the Use of Architectural Drawings during the Middle Ages |journal=Muqarnas |date=2001 |volume=18 |page=146 |doi=10.2307/1523305 |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/1523305 |issn=0732-2992 |quote=The common nine-bayed plan of the gavit calls to mind the typical nine-bayed mosque plan that spread through-out the Islamic world from Central Asia to Spain after the Abbasid era; at the same time, the domed, nine-bayed design was common for the naos of both Byzantine and Armenian church.|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The first mention of a "žamatun" appears in the 1038 dedicatory inscription of Horomos Monastery, which also is the oldest known "žamatun", built in 1038:<ref name="EV"/>

{{blockquote|In the year of the Armenians 487 (ie 1038), I, the šahanšah Yovannēs, son of the šahanšah Gagik, gave my vineyard located in Kołb to this church of mine, Surb-Yovannēs, which I have built in this monastery of Hoṙomos, along with this žamatun...|Dedicatory inscription of the gavit at Horomos.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Vardanyan |first1=Edda |title=The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit' Structures in Armenien Architecture |journal=Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz |date=1 January 2015 |page=210 |url=https://www.academia.edu/42320635/The_%C5%BDamatun_of_Ho%E1%B9%99omos_and_the_%C5%BDamatun_Gawit_Structures_in_Armenien_Architecture}}</ref>}}

The mention of the term ''gavit'' for such buildings appears for the first time more than a century later in 1181 in the dedicatory inscription at the Sanahin Monastery by Abbot Yovhannēs:<ref name="EV216"/>

{{blockquote|In the year 630 (ie 1181 CE), at the time of the victorious king Georg, and ''amirspasalar'' Sargis and his sons Zak‘arē and Iwanē, and ''amira'' K‘urd, I, Yovannēs, Abbot of the holy monastery (re)built this once existing church and a ''gawit‘'' from its foundations, with the help of amir K‘urd and the great ''vardapet'' Grigor and Christ God, with great hope...<ref name="EV216">{{cite journal |last1=Vardanyan |first1=Edda |title=The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit' Structures in Armenien Architecture |journal=Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz |date=1 January 2015 |pages=216–217 |url=https://www.academia.edu/42320635/The_%C5%BDamatun_of_Ho%E1%B9%99omos_and_the_%C5%BDamatun_Gawit_Structures_in_Armenien_Architecture}}</ref>}}

{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=400|caption_align=center | align = right | direction =horizontal | image1 = Horomos Monastery 42.jpg | caption1=''Zhamatun'' of Horomos Monastery, 1038 | image2 = Harichavank D A 38.jpg | caption2 = ''Zhamatun'' of Harichavank Monastery, 1201-1219 | footer=From the outside, a ''gavit'' or ''zhamatun'' only looks like a big rectangular block in front of a church, often with a colonnaded belvedere on top convering the hole of the oculus.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kazaryan |first1=Armen |authorlink=Armen Kazaryan |title=The Zhamatun of Horomos: The Shaping of an Unprecedented Type of Fore-church Hall |journal=Journal für Kunst- und Bildgeschichte |date=2 May 2022 |pages=1–14 |doi=10.48633/ksttx.2014.3.88328 |url=https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/bitstream/handle/18452/8349/kazaryan.pdf}}</ref> }} It seems that ''zhamatun'' was used to refer to new structures built more-or-less contemporaneously with the neighbouring church to serve funerary or commemorative functions, while the terms ''gavit'' referred to a space built next to older churches, covering existing ancient gravestones.<ref name="EV221-222">{{cite journal |last1=Vardanyan |first1=Edda |title=The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit' Structures in Armenien Architecture |journal=Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz |date=1 January 2015 |pages=221 |url=https://www.academia.edu/42320635/The_%C5%BDamatun_of_Ho%E1%B9%99omos_and_the_%C5%BDamatun_Gawit_Structures_in_Armenien_Architecture |quote=All the above discussion permits the following conclusions. Those structures that were built next to and almost simultaneously with newly founded churches with the specific purpose of serving a funerary/commemorative function were called žamatun, while those built adjacent to older churches, covering already existing gravestones were called gawit‘. This hypothesis is further confirmed by a historical-philological analysis of the respective terms.}}</ref> "''Gawit‘''" had an ancient meaning of "open courtyard" referring to the existing space around old churches where the graves of the nobility were already placed, while ''žami tun'' means “house of hours” in Armenian, "''zam''" designating a time of the day dedicated to prayer.<ref name="EV221-222"/>

==Structure== The earliest style of ''gavit'' consists of an oblong vault supported by double arches, with an ''erdik'' (lantern or oculus) center, and adorned with eight decorated slabs, as seen in the earliest known gavit at Horomos dated 1038.<ref name="EV"/><ref name="OG"/> In later types the vault would often be decorated with ''muqarnas'' stalactite designs.<ref name="AG">{{cite journal |last1=Ghazarian |first1=Armen |last2=Ousterhout |first2=Robert |title=A Muqarnas Drawing from Thirteenth-Century Armenia and the Use of Architectural Drawings during the Middle Ages |journal=Muqarnas |date=2001 |volume=18 |page=145 |doi=10.2307/1523305 |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/1523305 |issn=0732-2992 |quote=lts. Above the square central space was a complex muqarnas vault, measuring just over 5 m on each side, with a central erdik or oculus, which may have originally been covered by a colonnated canopy.|url-access=subscription }}</ref> This early type of ''muqarnas'' vault used cut stone in a way similar to that of Anatolian Seljuk architecture, different from the typical Armenian vault construction, which used thin stone facing on mortared rubble.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ghazarian |first1=Armen |last2=Ousterhout |first2=Robert |title=A Muqarnas Drawing from Thirteenth-Century Armenia and the Use of Architectural Drawings during the Middle Ages |journal=Muqarnas |date=2001 |volume=18 |page=151 |doi=10.2307/1523305 |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/1523305 |issn=0732-2992 |quote=Working similarly with cut stone, the Seljuq muqarnas provide a close technical comparison to Armenian construction. It is worth noting that the corbelled construction of the Armenian muqarnas vaults are technically and structurally closer to the Seljuq examples than they are to typical Armenian vault construction, which had a thin stone facing on a mortared rubble.|url-access=subscription }}</ref> This form was replaced by a square room with four columns, divided into nine sections with a dome in the center. The ''muqarnas'' motif was clearly inspired by Islamic sources, but it was used differently, and the Armenian ''muqarnas'' vault with oculus was not found in the Muslim world until it was copied about a century later, as in the vault of the Yakutiye Madrasa in nearby Erzurum (1310).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Eastmond |first1=Antony |authorlink=Antony Eastmond |title=Tamta's World: The Life and Encounters of a Medieval Noblewoman from the Middle East to Mongolia |date=1 January 2017 |doi=10.1017/9781316711774.011 |page=297 |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316711774.011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |quote=The most obvious architectural form that was adopted in Armenian churches was the muqarnas vault. A fine example is the complex muqarnas that was used to build up the central vault of the zhamatun at Harichavank, which was added to the main church in the monastery by 1219. The origin of this type of vaulting clearly comes from Islamic sources, but it is used very differently here. There are no comparable examples in the Islamic world of using it to form complete vaults with an oculus in the centre. Throughout Anatolia in this period muqarnas were used to form niche heads. It was used for domes elsewhere in the Islamic world, as at Nur al-Din Zangi’s 1174 hospital in Damascus, but conceived very differently: the monastic muqarnas are structurally pendentives, whereas the Damascus dome is a succession of stucco squinches. A generation later the Armenian use of muqarnas was re-imported into the Muslim world, and buildings such as the Yakutiye Madrasa in Erzurum (1310) copied the idea of a muqarnas vault around an oculus.}}</ref> The "lightwell" itself, with central oculus, is known in Anatolian art from earlier periods, as in the Divriği Great Mosque and Hospital (built 1228-1229).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Akurgal |first1=Ekrem |title=The Art and Architecture of Turkey |date=1980 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-8478-0273-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I8RPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA85 |language=en}}</ref> The last evolution consists of a ''gavit'' without columns and with arched ceilings.

On the west side of the Church of the Holy Redeemer in the Sanahin Monastery complex, the ''gavit'' built in 1181 has four tall free-standing internal pillars supporting arches. The pillars and their bases are elaborately decorated. In the same complex, the ''gavit'' of the Mother of God church is a three-nave hall with lower arches and less elaborate decorations on the pillars.<ref>{{cite book |title=Armenia: with Nagorno Karabagh |author=Nicholas Holding |publisher=Bradt Travel Guides |year=2006 |ISBN=1-84162-163-3 |page=161}}</ref>

==Major examples== Some major examples of ''gavits'' and ''zhamatuns'', ordered chronologically: <gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4"> File:Horomos Monastery 26.jpg|The first known zhamatun is from Horomos, dated 1038. Vault with oculus ("lightwell") and decorated slabs in an octagonal layout.<ref name="EV"/><ref name="OG"/> File:Սանահինի վանք 12.jpg|The ''gavit'' of the Church of St. Amenaprkitch in Sanahin Monastery, was built in 1181 and has an inscription mentioning Sargis Zakarian.<ref name="JBK48"/> File:Goshavank-Raffi Kojian- 11564793.jpg|Goshavank (1197).<ref name="AE31">{{cite book |last1=Eastmond |first1=Antony |title=Tamta's World: The Life and Encounters of a Medieval Noblewoman from the Middle East to Mongolia |date=1 January 2017 |doi=10.1017/9781316711774.003 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=31–32}}</ref> File:Narthex_of_the_Church_of_the_Holy_Apostles,_Ani._Reconstruction_by_Toros_Toramanian,_1908.jpg|Gavit in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Ani (after 1031, before 1215, probably {{c.|1200}}).<ref name="AE300"/> File:Bagnayr Monastery (4232596879).jpg|Remains of ''zhamatun'' with ''muqarnas''-decorated vault, Bagnayr Monastery, dated 1201.<ref name="Unesco">{{cite book |title=Ani Cultural Landscape |publisher=Unesco |page=31 |url=https://whc.unesco.org/uploads/nominations/1518.pdf |quote=The similarity of short and fat columns with capitals bearing ''muqarnas'' ornamentation can be found inside the hall at the monastery of Horomos and Bagnayr Monasteries.}}</ref><ref name="AE300">{{cite book |last1=Eastmond |first1=Antony |title=Tamta's World: The Life and Encounters of a Medieval Noblewoman from the Middle East to Mongolia |date=1 January 2017 |doi=10.1017/9781316711774.011 |page=300 |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316711774.011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |quote=Many of these overlaps come together in one building, the zhamatun that was added to the early eleventh-century church of the Holy Apostles in Ani some time shortly before 1217 (the earliest inscription on the building). Note 25: A date of around 1200 is supported by the similarity of the vaulting of the zhamatun of the monastery at Bagnayr, where the earliest inscription dates to 1201: Basmadjian, Inscriptions arméniennes d’Ani, no. 150.}}</ref> File:Սանահին (2019) 49.jpg|''Gavit'' in the first style, Sanahin Monastery, ''Sourp Astvatsatsin'', 1211 (no lightwell) File:16062013(027)Hakharcin.jpg|Haghartsin Monastery ''zhamatun'' built by Ivane I Zakarian {{c.|1215}}.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Vardanyan |first1=Edda |title=The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit' Structures in Armenien Architecture |journal=Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz |date=1 January 2015 |page=211 |url=https://www.academia.edu/42320635/The_%C5%BDamatun_of_Ho%E1%B9%99omos_and_the_%C5%BDamatun_Gawit_Structures_in_Armenien_Architecture?email_work_card=title}}</ref> File:Astvatsnkal Monastery (Gavit and muqarnas vault with oculus).jpg|Astvatsankal Monastery: the ''gavit'' and its vault with ''muqarnas'' design, with a central ''erdik'' or oculus, which may have been covered by a colonnaded canopy. 1250.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ghazarian |first1=Armen |last2=Ousterhout |first2=Robert |title=A Muqarnas Drawing from Thirteenth-Century Armenia and the Use of Architectural Drawings during the Middle Ages |journal=Muqarnas |date=2001 |volume=18 |page=145 |doi=10.2307/1523305 |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/1523305 |issn=0732-2992 |quote=The original chapel at the site dates from the fifth or sixth century, to which the main church or katholikon was added on the north side. It is dated by inscription to 1244, attributed to the patronage of Prince K'urd and his wife Xorisali. A separate inscription names a master, presumably the builder, named Yovhanes. The large gavit or narthex was constructed immediately following the church, and must have been completed by ca. 1250.}}</ref> File:Hovhannavank - gavit (restoration).jpg|Gavit of Hovhannavank, completed in 1250 by Kurd Vachutian.<ref name="EV212">{{cite journal |last1=Vardanyan |first1=Edda |title=The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit' Structures in Armenien Architecture |journal=Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz |date=1 January 2015 |page=212 |url=https://www.academia.edu/42320635/The_%C5%BDamatun_of_Ho%E1%B9%99omos_and_the_%C5%BDamatun_Gawit_Structures_in_Armenien_Architecture?email_work_card=title}}</ref> File:Gandzasar Zhamatun 1261.jpg|Gandzasar ''zhamatun'', dedicated by Hasan-Jalal Dawla in 1261.<ref name="EV213">{{cite journal |last1=Vardanyan |first1=Edda |title=The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit' Structures in Armenien Architecture |journal=Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz |date=1 January 2015 |page=213 |url=https://www.academia.edu/42320635/The_%C5%BDamatun_of_Ho%E1%B9%99omos_and_the_%C5%BDamatun_Gawit_Structures_in_Armenien_Architecture?email_work_card=title}}</ref> File:Interior de capilla en la roca, Geghard.jpg|''Zhamatun'' of Prince Prosh Khaghbakian (1283).<ref>{{cite book |title=Geghard |page=8 |url=https://archive.org/details/daa-06-geghard-1973/page/8/mode/1up?q=prosh |quote=The inscription carved on the north wall of the church, shows the date of foundation in 1283, and the name of the donator, Prince Prosh.}}</ref> The tombs are behind the twin arches.<ref>{{cite web |title=Unesco. Geghard Monastery |url=https://whc.unesco.org/uploads/nominations/960.pdf |quote=The prosperity of the monastery in the thirteenth century was due to the patronage of the Proshyan prince, who carved out the second cave church in 1283, reached through a rock-cut antechamber which served as their mausoleum. The burials are in a recess behind twin arches, over which two felines on leashes and an eagle with a lamb in its talons, the family's armoured bearings have been sculpted in bold relief.}}</ref> The entrance to the Proshyan chapel is to the right.<ref>{{cite book |title=Geghard |page=42 |url=https://archive.org/details/daa-06-geghard-1973/page/42/mode/1up}}</ref> File:Upper Zhamatun, Geghard.jpg|''Zhamatun'' (1288), tomb of Papak Proshyan and his wife Ruzukana </gallery>

==References== {{Reflist}}

Category:Church architecture Category:Eastern Christian liturgy Category:Armenian words and phrases