Armenian Religious Architecture
The Armenian Apostolic Church has been a prime patron of Armenian architecture both in historic Armenia and in the diaspora. Armenian communities seeking to keep the traditions of their homeland built churches with designs inspired by historic landmarks such as the cathedrals of Ani, Zvartnots and Etchmiadzin. This tradition still continues into the present day as Armenian immigration has shifted away from the traditional areas of outmigration in Europe and the Middle East into the Americas and Australia.
Armenian church communities frequently erect Khachkars (stone crosses) and similar monuments on the parish grounds to commemorate the Armenian Genocide. Stones, bricks, or walls near the monument record the names of deceased members of the local community and their ancestors. Khatchkars are a common feature of interior and exterior church walls and are often found on Armenian gravestones.
Read more about this topic: Armenian Christians
Famous quotes containing the words armenian, religious and/or architecture:
“The exile is a singular, whereas refugees tend to be thought of in the mass. Armenian refugees, Jewish refugees, refugees from Franco Spain. But a political leader or artistic figure is an exile. Thomas Mann yesterday, Theodorakis today. Exile is the noble and dignified term, while a refugee is more hapless.... What is implied in these nuances of social standing is the respect we pay to choice. The exile appears to have made a decision, while the refugee is the very image of helplessness.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“American thinking, when it concerns itself with beautiful letters as when it concerns itself with religious dogma or political theory, is extraordinarily timid and superficial ... [I]t evades the genuinely serious problems of art and life as if they were stringently taboo ... [T]he outward virtues it undoubtedly shows are always the virtues, not of profundity, not of courage, not of originality, but merely those of an emasculated and often very trashy dilettantism.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“I don’t think of form as a kind of architecture. The architecture is the result of the forming. It is the kinesthetic and visual sense of position and wholeness that puts the thing into the realm of art.”
—Roy Lichtenstein (b. 1923)