Gevorg Marzpetuni/Tapi Castle

Armenia, Armenia

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Gevorg Marzpetuni Castle, also called Tapi Fortress (Tapi Berd), is a medieval Armenian fortress in the Ararat Province, located about 6 km northwest of Urtsadzor village on a hill by the Khosrov River within the Kotuts Mountains and the Khosrov Forest State Reserve.

It is believed to have been built in the 10th century and is named in later tradition after the famous 10th‑century Armenian prince and commander Gevorg Marzpetuni, though the preserved inscriptions inside the fortress date from the 13th century onward, with one from 1256 on the church wall mentioning the place name “Tap,” which gives the fortress its name Tapi.

The fortress was part of the ancient Urts town and its surrounding province, which was especially prosperous in the 4th–7th and 12th–15th centuries, and it served as a key stronghold and possibly a residence for the Urts administrative and military system, later associated with the Orbelian princely house, one of the most important noble families in medieval Armenia.

Tapi Fortress is laid out in a rectangular plan, surrounded by fortified walls with rounded towers at the four corners, and includes inhabited and economic vaulted constructions along the southern and eastern walls built between the 10th and 13th centuries, as well as a small 13th‑century church with a vaulted hall structure built of white felsite stone inside the walls.