NEW DATA ON THE DOMES OF THE ANI’S CHURCHES. PART TWO. THE CHURCH OF THE INNER FORTRESS
Authors: Казарян Армен Юрьевич 
Published: January 2022

Статья посвящена реконструкции и научной интерпретации форм купольной главы одного из ключевых памятников архитектуры Армении рубежа XII-XIII вв. - церкви, построенной амирспасаларом и шахиншахом Закаре Мхаргрдзели из рода Закарянов во Внутренней крепости Ани, именуемой в народной традиции Ахчкабердом (Девичьей крепостью). Исследование является второй статьей о купольных главах Ани и в то же время продолжает серию публикаций об этой церкви, начатых в 2019 г. в соавторстве с Е. А. Лошкаревой. Предпринятое в мае 2019 г. новое обследование руины этой анийской церкви и обмеры ее фрагментов позволили реконструировать высокий 12-гранный барабан, украшенный рельефной аркатурой и фризом и увенчанный зигзагообразным широким карнизом, служившим основой складчатого зонтичного шатра. В статье выдвигаются предположения о рождении такой формы главы в результате творческого соединения двух архитектурных идей эпохи Багратидов: декорации барабана Анийского кафедрального собора конца X в. и складчатого купола группы монастырских храмов первой половины XI в. Анализ форм барабана и принципов архитектурного творчества в сравнении с памятниками новой эпохи, ознаменованной приходом к власти Закаре, уточняет место исследуемой постройки в сложении монастырских церквей первой четверти XIII в. Как выдвигаемая реконструкция церкви Закаре, так и расширение знаний о куполах эпохи позволяют глубже познать концептуальные основы средневекового армянского зодчества и выявить роль творческого начала в его развитии.

The article is devoted to the scientific interpretation and reconstruction of the forms of the dome of one of the key architectural monuments in Armenia at the turn of the 12th-13th centuries - a church built in the Ani Inner Fortress by Amirspasalar and Shahinshah Zakara Mkhargrdzeli from the Zakarian family. The Inner fortress is traditionally referred to as Aghjkberd (Maiden Fortress). The present study is the second in a series of articles on the Ani cupolas and, at the same time, it continues the sequence of publications on the church undertaken in 2019 in collaboration with E. A. Loshkareva. An important aspect of Armenian architecture research is the possibility to create fairly accurate reconstructions based on actual material. Thanks to the masonry technique, strengthened by a rubble-concrete core, joints of different architectural forms are preserved in fragments of ruined buildings. Such joint details in fallen fragments serve as clues to the reconstruction of architectural forms and in determining their order in the vertical composition of the building. A new survey undertaken in May 2019 on the ruined Ani church and the measurements of its fragments made it possible to reconstruct a tall domed tholobate, decorated with a 12-part blind arcade covered in relief. Passing above it is a frieze crowned with a zigzaged wide cornice that served as the basis of an umbrella-like steeple. Attention is drawn to the interpretation of some individual details, to the specific understanding of the covering ornaments, especially to the motif of geometric weaving on the frieze, and to the variations of the floral ornament in the shape of a festoon on the capitals and spandrels. The results of the investigation of details and ornamentation help us to understand the genesis of the composition of the dome and the entire church too. In the article it is presumed that this particular shape of the dome had become an outcome of the creative combination of two architectural ideas of the Bagratid era: the decoration of the drum of the Ani Cathedral from the end of the 10th century and a type of cupola of a group of monastery churches from the first half of the 11th century. The exploration of the drum’s forms and the principles of architectural design in comparison with the data on the monuments of the new era, marked by the rise to power of Zakare, clarifies the place and role of the church of the Inner fortress in the history of monastery churches in the first quarter of the 13th century. Both the proposed reconstruction of Zakare’s building and the expanded scope of knowledge of the cupolas of the era allow us to understand better the conceptual foundations of medieval Armenian architecture and to reveal the role of creativity in its development.