A DRAWING DEPICTING A RECONSTRUCTION OF ANI

On display within the Architecture Museum, Yerevan

In Armenia it is forbidden (by the Russian Army border guards) to take photographs of Ani from the Armenian side of the border. It is also forbidden to take photographs of the two reproductions of Ani in Yerevan: the three-dimensional model of the ruins of Ani that is on display within the State Museum of Armenian History, and the drawing depicting Ani as it might have appeared before its fall that is on display within the Architecture Museum.

However, I was able to brave the Architecture Museum's harridan of a gatekeeper to snatch the following photographs. I do not know the history of this very large and detailed drawing, or who created it. It may have been produced in connection with the 1000th anniversary of the completion of the Cathedral of Ani because the drawing appears in the design of the Armenian postage stamp issued to commemorate that event.

Much of the reconstruction is very speculative of course, and it also displays some nationalistic self-censorship (the Minuchihr mosque is shown depicted without its minaret and the Abu'l Muamran mosque is not shown at all). It is also an idealised view: for example, the Gagikashen church collapsed almost 200 years before the church of Tigran Honents was built, yet both are depicted in the drawing.

Click inside the red rectangles to get a detailed view of that section of the drawing.

The Gagikashen church and adjoining districts The citadel of Ani The 'old city' district of Ani The cathedral and adjoining districts The church of the Redeemer and adjoining districts The Tigran Honents church and adjoining districts