Surp Stepanos Church
Recent Photographs of the Exterior
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Surp Stepanos church, as it stood in 1998. The dome is no longer present, and the buildings that had been adjacent to the church are also missing. Still, looking at the surviving architectural elements gives a sense of what a magnificent structure this must have been.
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Surp Stepanos church, January, 2002. Note that the church is built on a steep slope, such that the rear of the building, where the altar was, is actually built into the ground. The cruciform shaped window below the peak in the roof can be seen in some other churches in the area (and is almost identical in the church still standing in Tomarza).
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Surp Stepanos, May, 2002. In the last photograph in this series, above the door, one can just barely discern the seventh letter of the Armenian alphabet, representing Almighty God. It is interesting to note how frequently the architectural designs appear in groups of three--there are 3 arched openings on the northern and southern wings, and 3 windows in the front on the second floor. Perhaps this is not happenstance, but rather refers to the Holy Trinity.
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| Surp Stepanos, May, 2003 |
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