Trdat the Architect ( hy, Տրդատ ճարտարապետ, circa 940s – 1020) was the chief

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

of the Bagratid

kings of Armenia This is a list of the monarchs of Armenia, for more information on ancient Armenia and Armenians, please see History of Armenia. For information on the medieval Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia, please see the separate page Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia ...

, and most notable for his design of the cathedral at

Ani Ani ( hy, Անի; grc-gre, Ἄνιον, ''Ánion''; la, Abnicum; tr, Ani) is a ruined medieval Armenian city now situated in Turkey's province of Kars, next to the closed border with Armenia. Between 961 and 1045, it was the capital of the ...

and his reconstruction of the dome of

Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia ( 'Holy Wisdom'; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque ( tr, Ayasofya-i Kebir Cami-i Şerifi), is a mosque and major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The cathedral was originally built as a Greek Ortho ...

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

Work

Armenia

Trdat was active in Armenia before and after his reconstruction of the

. In 961,

Ashot III Ashot III ( hy, Աշոտ Գ) was a king of Armenia, ruling the medieval kingdom of Armenia from 952/53–77. Known as Ashot III the Merciful (Աշոտ Գ Ողորմած) and acknowledged by foreign rulers as the ''Shahanshah'' (king of kings) o ...

moved his

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

from

Kars Kars (; ku, Qers; ) is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province. Its population is 73,836 in 2011. Kars was in the ancient region known as ''Chorzene'', (in Greek Χορζηνή) in classical historiography ( Strabo), part of ...

to the great

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

where he assembled new

palace A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

s and rebuilt the

wall A wall is a structure and a surface that defines an area; carries a load; provides security, shelter, or soundproofing; or, is decorative. There are many kinds of walls, including: * Walls in buildings that form a fundamental part of the supe ...

s. The

Catholicosate A catholicosate or catholicate is a particular ecclesiastical primacy, headed by a primate titled as a catholicos. Such regional primacies exist within various branches of Eastern Christianity, especially those of Oriental Orthodox tradition. The ...

was moved to the Argina district in the

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

s of Ani where Trdat completed the building of the Catholicosal palace and the Mother Cathedral of Ani. This

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

offers an example of a cruciform

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

within a rectangular plan. Trdat is also believed to have designed or supervised the construction of Surb Nshan (Holy Sign, completed in 991), the oldest structure at

Haghpat Monastery Haghpat Monastery, also known as Haghpatavank ( hy, Հաղպատավանք), is a medieval monastery complex in Haghpat, Armenia, built between the 10th and 13th century. Location The location of Haghpat Monastery was chosen so that it overlooks ...

Byzantine Empire

After a great earthquake in 989 partly collapsed the dome of

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

officials summoned Trdat to

Byzantium Byzantium () or Byzantion ( grc, Βυζάντιον) was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name ''Byzantion'' and its Latinization ''Byzantium'' cont ...

to organize its repair. The rebuilt dome was completed by 994.Maranci, Christina.
The Architect Trdat: Building Practices and Cross-Cultural Exchange in Byzantium and Armenia
" ''The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians''. Vol. 62, No. 3, Sep. 2003, pp. 294-305. As the contemporary Armenian historian Stepanos Taronetsi (Asoghik) comment

References

External links

The Ani cathedral

Armenian Architecture

St. Sophia Church
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trdat the Architect Ethnic Armenian architects Byzantine architects Byzantine people of Armenian descent 940s births 1020 deaths People from Bagratid Armenia 10th-century Armenian people 11th-century Armenian people 10th-century Byzantine people 11th-century Byzantine people

Work

Armenia

Byzantine Empire

References

Further reading

External links