Cathedral and Churches of Echmiatsin and the Archaeological Site of Zvartnots
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How it came to be
Echmiatsin in Armenia was long known as Vagharshapat. By tradition, after King Tiridates III made Christianity the state religion, Gregory the Illuminator built the cathedral here in 301-303 over a pagan temple. The core of the present building was put up in 483 or 484 by Vahan Mamikonian after a Persian invasion had badly damaged it.
The see of the Catholicos was restored here in 1441, and it remains the headquarters of the Armenian Apostolic Church. In 1604 Shah Abbas I of Persia carried relics and stones away to New Julfa. Nearby stand the churches of St Hripsime of 618 and St Gayane of 630.
Zvartnots, a three-storey round church begun in 643 under Catholicos Nerses III, collapsed in the 10th century, most often attributed to an earthquake. In 2000 the churches and the archaeological site of Zvartnots were inscribed.
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