Kotavank Monastery
The church stands on a rocky hill above the right bank of the Argichi River, at the western edge of Nerkin Getashen. Ravines define the hill on its northern and western sides. A cemetery around it contains medieval and more recent graves. The settlement of Kot was a stop on the road from Dvin to Partav, where routes along the western shore of Sevan and up from Vayots Dzor met.
In the late ninth century Prince Grigor Supan II of Syunik built the church within an enclosure established by his ancestors. The foundation inscription is lost, but the thirteenth-century historian Stepanos Orbelian recorded its contents. The prince gave the church liturgical vessels and exempted its priests from royal taxes. This detail tells us how he provided for the new foundation after the construction itself was complete.
Within the rectangular perimeter, the church is cross-shaped. Three arms end in semicircular apses and the western arm is rectangular. Two-storey chambers occupy the corners. Doors open to the west and south. Roughly dressed basalt forms much of the walling, with more regular stone at structural junctions. Inscriptions and tombstones attest to use into the eighteenth century. Nineteenth-century visitors found the church ruined. Restoration begun in the 1980s was interrupted and finally completed in 2015.