Armenia

Geghard Monastery

Where the mountain becomes a church At Geghard, the cliff is more than a backdrop. It provides walls, ceilings and the substance from which sacred rooms were excavated. Freestanding masonry stands beside chambers cut directly into the mountain, so that moving through the monastery becomes a lesson in two ways of building. In Armenia’s Kotayk region, near Goght in the upper Azat Valley, the ensemble draws its force from that encounter between deliberate architecture and…...