Geghard Monastery

Geghard Monastery was founded in the 4th century by St. Gregory the Illuminator at a pre-Christian sacred spring, rebuilt after 9th-century Arab destruction, and completed in its current form in the 13th century by the Proshyan princes. It housed the Holy Lance for five centuries and served as a major center of Armenian Christian learning and pilgrimage. The rock-cut architecture represents the pinnacle of medieval Armenian construction.

The founding of Geghard belongs to the birth of Armenian Christianity itself. St. Gregory, born into nobility, raised in Cappadocia as a Christian, returned to Armenia to convert the nation. King Tiridates III, whose father had been killed by Gregory's father, imprisoned him for thirteen years in a pit at Khor Virap. When the king fell ill, a vision revealed that only Gregory could heal him. Released and restored, Gregory healed the king, who then accepted Christianity and declared it the state religion in 301 CE.

Gregory traveled the land, establishing churches at sites already recognized as sacred. At a spring emerging from a cave in the Azat River gorge, where people had gathered to venerate the water since before memory, he founded Ayrivank, the Monastery of the Cave.

According to Armenian tradition, the Apostle Thaddeus had brought the Holy Lance to Armenia in 33 CE. At some point, this relic came to the monastery, which became known as Geghardavank. The first written record of this name appears in 1250, though the lance's presence likely preceded this by centuries.

The original monastery was destroyed by Arab invaders in the 9th century. What visitors see today dates primarily to the 13th century, when Armenian culture flourished under the protection of the Georgian crown. The Zakarid generals Zakare and Ivane, who recovered Armenia from Turkic control, oversaw construction of the main church in 1215. The spectacular rock-cut chambers came later, commissioned by Prince Prosh Khaghbakian after he purchased the monastery.