Akhtala
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A small town in Armenia, Akhtala (population 14322) contains an impressive 13th c. monastery and fortress. To reach it, proceed left over the Debed on an unsignposted bridge just past Neghots. Turn right at the end of the bridge, then after 0.4km the road takes a hard left, crosses the train tracks, and splits - take the right fork over a small tributary stream. Proceed 0.3km ahead to a crossroads; turn sharply (almost a U-turn) to the left. Proceed 2.2km up this road, passing a soviet-era apartment building on your right at 0.5km and passing a bridge to the left (stay on the road to the right) at 1.6km. As you approach the end of these 2.2km you will see the fortress on the left; proceed past it until the road turns sharply right and a small dirt road continues straight and then to the left. Take this small road 0.3km to reach the fortress gates.
The Akhtala fortress contains an Arakelots or S. Gevorg church and a 13th c. spring monument. It is surrounded with rocky deep canyons on three sides, and the north side joins the plain. The fortress is protected by tall pyramid gates and by man-made extensions to the three canyon walls. Although the inside of the fortress appears to be flat earth, much of the edge is built up and contains subterranean rooms. Use caution, specially with small children, as there are a few holes than can be as much as 12 feet deep into these rooms. The main entrance opens on the northern side, which has a roomy hall with vaulted roof and a three-storied pyramidal tower. The fortress was built in the X c by the Bagratuni dynasty's Kyurikid branch. Being one of the outstanding defensive spots of medieval Armenia, together with Lori, Kayan, Kaytzon, Gag and other fortresses, Akhtala played a great role in protecting the northern regions and the main road taking from Armenia to Georgia.
The Holy Virgin's church is famous for its first-rate and highly artistic frescos, with which are covered the inside walls, the partitions, and the bearings. They are characterized with perfect iconography, richness of theme and variety of different colors (where blue rules). Especially outstanding are the Virgin on a throne, the sacred communion, Hovanes Karapet frescoes, as well as pictures of saints till the waist or standing in whole length, on the pillars and the bearings. Find a villager to help unlock the church door in case nobody is around.
On the northwestern side of the Holy Virgin Church there is a one-nave vaulted church and its half-rounded apse going out from the eastern wall's borders. The only entrance is from western side, surrounded with a trench. There used to be a vestibule with a gable roof, which has not survived. Parallel to the north of the Holy Virgin's church the two-storied building of the friary stood, whose walls are preserved. It was a roomy hall with wooden roof, for which the exterior fortress wall served also as its eastern wall. The northern wall is half-rounded, and an entrance to the underground tunnel opens here. Beyond the territory of the temple in Akhtala village, there are many churches, chapels, and defensive erections standing or destroyed (X-XIII cc). Among them are temple of the Holy Trinity (consisting of two connected churches, a chapel, outside hall, and underground constructions), St. George church, the pair of churches in the western part of the temple the chapel of Barsegh, etc., which in their turn evidence Pshndzahank-Akhtala's medieval eventful (rich) past.
The monastery complex's main entrance and the pillars were repaired; the ramshackle wooden belfry built in XIV was taken away from the yard. In 1975-1978 the top parts of the walls on the church were repaired, the tin of the roof was replaced with basalt slabs. By the village was a large Early Iron Age cemetery. In 1763, King Herakli II brought Greek miners to work the ore deposits nearby. Upper Akhtala has a Greek church.
