Kecharis Monastery

Kecharis Monastery is a medieval Armenian monastery complex dating from the 11th to 13th century located 60 kilometers from Yerevan in the Armenian ski resort town of Tsakhkadzor. Kecharis, nestled in the Pambak mountains, was founded in the 11th century by a Pahlavuni ruler, and construction proceeded until the middle of the 13th century. Kecharis was an important ecclesiastical and educational institution in Armenia throughout the 12th and 13th centuries. Today, the monastery has been completely rebuilt and can be seen from the ski slopes.

An earthquake in 1927 severely damaged the domes of the two major churches. The structures were preserved under the Armenian SSR, and reconstruction work began in the 1980s. The 1988 Armenian earthquake, the Soviet Union's fall in 1991, the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, and Armenia's embargo by its two allied Turkic neighbors all contributed to a decade-long standstill in reconstruction. Kecharis' reconstruction work commenced in 1998 and was completed in 2000. Vladimir Harutyunian, an Armenian benefactor from Vienna, paid for the renewed work in remembrance of his parents Harutyun and Arsenik.

Location: Tsaghkadzor