Haghpat

Haghpat was founded in the tenth century under the Bagratid kings and grew into one of the great centres of learning in medieval Armenia, with a scriptorium, a refectory and a library cut partly into the hillside. It stands on a shelf of the Debed canyon with the mountains of Lori falling away below.

Together with Sanahin, ten kilometres away, it forms a single UNESCO World Heritage site. The two monasteries were rivals as much as neighbours; local tradition claims the name Sanahin means this one is older than that one.

The eighteenth-century troubadour Sayat-Nova spent his last years at Haghpat. Among the khachkars scattered around the walls, the Holy Redeemer cross of 1273 is the most celebrated, its carving as fine as metalwork.