Mount Varak's Sourp Khatch (Holy Cross) Christian Monastery, Church, Unparalleled Manuscript Museum

http://www.virtualani.org/varagavank/index.htm
VARAK: Mount Varak's Sourp Khatch (Holy Cross) Christian Monastery, Church, Unparalleled Manuscript Museum
Northwest of the lake, Varaka Vank (Vank means monastery), built in the eighth century, nestled in a tree-top. In front if this aggregation of buildings a powerful spring of water leaped from the mountain and rushed to the valley below. Lasmone Blossoms, grapevines, and roses, garden beauty and wild nature, lay spilled around them as they faced the lake. Here, too, was one of the greatest libraries and museums of the world, filled with ancient and modern books and works of art. In April, 1915, the Turks burned this wonderful institution to the ground. In the following June our regiment camped for a week upon the sacred ruins, and for the whole time my heart cried out with the misery of it all. http://www.cilicia.com/armo10c-cm191809.html
THE MONASTERY OF VARAKAVANK
History

The Armenian monastery of VaraKavank, also known as Yedi Kilise ("Seven Churches"), was formerly the richest and best known monastery of Vasbouragan, and the residence of the archbishop of Van. The monastery lay close to the southern slopes of Mt. Varak (now called Erek Dağı), about 10km south-east of Van city.
King Senekerim-Hovhannes of Vaspurakan is said to have founded the monastery towards the beginning of his reign (1003-1022), but religious buildings existed on the site before that date.

The Holy Cross of VaraK

During their journey across Armenia at the end of the 3rd century, the saints Gayane and Hrip'sime are said to have brought a fragment of the True Cross to Van. When they left Vasbouragan the relic was lost until the 7th century, when it was miraculously found on Varak mountain by a monk and taken to a hermitage that stood on the site of what was to become Varakavank (monastery of Varak).

King Senekerim enlarged the existing complex into a monastery, to create a more suitable setting for what was the most important religious relic in his kingdom. After he had ceded his kingdom to the Byzantine empire, Senekerim took the relic with him to Sivas, where it was housed in the Armenian monastery of Surp Nishan, just outside the city.

Sometime later, after Senekerim's death, it was returned to Varakavank. In 1231, this now deeply venerated relic was taken for safe keeping to Norvaragvank ("New Varak monastery") in north eastern Armenia. At a later period it was returned to Van and was housed in the church known as Surp Nishan, inside the old walled city. It was lost, apparently forever, during the siege and massacres of 1915.

Later History

The monastery flourished during the 17th and 18th centuries, after the wars between the Ottoman and Persian empires had been settled, but declined rapidly during the 19th century. As well as suffering from periodic raids by the Kurdish tribes that afflicted most of eastern Turkey, the monastery was attacked by politically inspired persecutions directed against Armenian organisations by the Turkish authorities. Lake Van was the only region of "Turkish Armenia" where the Armenian population still had numerical superiority over the combined Turkish and Kurdish population; consequently it became the region of greatest repression.

Many European travellers to Van visited Varakavank and left descriptions of the place: click here to read H. F. B. Lynch's account of his visit in 1893. In the early part of the 20th century the German archaeologist Walter Bachman produced a detailed plan of the monastery's layout.

Varakavank was destroyed by the Turkish army on April 30th 1915, during the siege of Van. A Kurdish village, called Bakraçlı, later grew up around the ruins of the surviving churches. http://www.virtualani.org/varagavank/index.htm

James Russell Gumri Gyumri Vasbouragan Vaspurakan Vaspouragan Vasburakan Armenian Music Videos Shahe Sekayan from Van, Armenia, burned to the ground by Muslim Turks

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