Architecture & Monasteries

The gavit, a uniquely Armenian narthex form developed from the 11th century onward, takes the shape of a square hall in which four interior columns support a system of intersecting arches, with the central crown opened as an erdik — a stone lantern letting daylight into the otherwise dim assembly space. The form served simultaneously as church-narthex, lecture-hall, mausoleum, and weather shelter.

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