Note 82 — Chapter IV · VAN

These edifices are six in number: Surb Tiramayr (the mother of the Master, i.e. Jesus Christ), Surb Vardan, Surb Paulos, Surb Neshan or the token, so called from a relic of the Cross, Surb Sahak, Surb Tsiranavor. The last is of almost tiny proportions, and is named after the Virgin with the purple robes. A seventh chapel, close to Surb Paulos, bears the name of Surb Petros, or St. Peter, but was severely shaken by an earthquake a few years ago, and has been partially destroyed to prevent it collapsing. High mud walls, such as may be seen on the left of the photograph of the house in Van (Fig. 127), enclose the courts in which the churches are built. You enter through a low door of great weight after hammering with a ponderous knocker. The most interesting of all is certainly Surb Paulos; and the teachers in Yisusean, who accompanied me on my visit, were inclined to ascribe it to the times of St. Thaddeus. I see no reason to doubt that certain parts of the chapel date back to an epoch before the advent of St. Gregory, when Christianity must have flourished in Vaspurakan. Surb Paulos seems to have served as a model to the other churches; and the chapel is approached through the usual pronaos or church proper. The inside dimensions of the chapel are 57 feet by 27½ feet; and the thickness of the stone wall on the west side, where it is capable of being measured, is not less than 7 feet. Of rectangular shape, the disposition of the interior is not abnormal. You have an apse on the east side, preceded by a daïs or raised stage in stone; and the roof centres in a conical dome of great depth and admirable masonry, in which a row of loophole apertures admit a scanty light. The dome is supported by piers adhering to the walls. There is not a trace of plaster or ornament in the place; and the dark hue of the naked stone enhances the gloom. We observed three blocks which had been built into the walls and were inscribed with cuneiform characters. But they appeared to have been hewn without any regard to the inscriptions, which must have suffered considerable mutilation. Better treatment had evidently befallen a large inscribed slab which had been used as a lintel or upper stone, roofing a niche in a recess of the south wall. The arrowhead writing was well preserved. In this same wall we admired a most beautiful Armenian cross, carved in bold relief upon a stone panel 5 feet high and 4 feet broad. We seemed to be able to read a date—409 of the Armenian era or A.D. 960. My reader is already familiar with these crosses (Fig. 59, Vol. I. p. 271); but I regret that the light in the sanctuary was much too dim to enable me to photograph the most artistic specimen of this form of ornament which I remember to have seen.82