Akhtala Monastery Fortress

Akhtala, Armenia, Armenia

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Akhtala Monastery Fortress, also known as Pghindzavank (“Copper Monastery”), is a fortified medieval monastery complex in the village of Akhtala in Lori Province, northern Armenia, situated on a high plateau above a small river and surrounded by deep rocky canyons on three sides, with only the northern approach open to the plain.

The fortress walls with their tall, pyramid-shaped towers and main northern gate were built in the 10th century by the Kyurikid branch of the Bagratuni dynasty as a key defensive stronghold protecting the highway from Armenia to Georgia, while the monastic buildings, including the central Church of the Most Holy Mother of God, were added in the 12th and 13th centuries, notably by Princess Miriam Kyurikian and later by Ivane Zakaryan, who converted the site into a major Chalcedonian monastery.

The monastery’s most famous feature is its extraordinary collection of 13th-century frescoes, which cover almost all of the interior walls of the main church and are painted in the Byzantine style but often depict Armenian Christian themes and history; these murals were created by a group of about eight artists working in different styles, making Akhtala one of the only Armenian monasteries with such extensive and richly colored wall paintings.