Aghjots Monastery

Armenia, Armenia

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Aghjots Monastery, also called Aghjots Vank or the Saint Stephen Monastery of Goght, is a 13th-century Armenian monastery complex in the Khosrov State Reserve of Ararat Province, Armenia, located about 0.5 miles from the hamlet of Mets Gilanlar and 3–4 miles from the villages of Goght and Garni along a tributary of the Azat River.

The site was probably built on the ruins of an earlier 4th-century church, and according to local legend it was founded by Saint Gregory the Illuminator on the martyr’s tomb of Stepanos (Stephen), a companion of Saint Hripsime, but the main complex was commissioned by Prince Grigor Khaghbakian and his wife Princess Zaz starting in 1217, with the church of Saints Paul and Peter added in 1270 and a gavit (narthex) built in the 13th century.

The monastery consists of the main church of Saint Stephen, the smaller church of Saints Paul and Peter, and the adjacent gavit, all decorated with fine Armenian stone carvings and notable reliefs of Saints Peter and Paul, and surrounded by numerous khatchkars ( memorial crosses) and an ancient cemetery to the west.