St. Astvatsatsin Monastery or Kusaber Monastery was an Armenian monastery located in the village of

Kırna Kırna (also, Kyrna, Kirnə, Kirna and Krna) is a village and municipality in the Julfa District of Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan. It is located 30 km in the north from the district center, on the left bank of the Alinjachay River, on the slope of ...

(

Julfa District Julfa District () is one of the 7 districts of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan. The district borders the districts of Ordubad, Babek, Shahbuz, as well as the Syunik Province of Armenia and the East Azerbaijan Province of Ira ...

) of the

Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic The Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (, ) is a landlocked country, landlocked Enclave and exclave, exclave of the Azerbaijan, Republic of Azerbaijan. The region covers Official portal of Nakhchivan Autonomous RepublicNakhchivan Autonomous Republi ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

.Ayvazyan, Argam. ''Nakhijevani ISSH haykakan hushardzannery. Hamahavak tsutsak.'' Yerevan: Hayastan, 1986, p. 96. The monastery was located southeast of the village.

History

The monastery was built in 1330 and was renovated in the 17th century.Ayvazyan, Argam. T''he Historical Monuments of Nakhichevan''. Transl. Krikor H. Maksoudian. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1990, p. 88. At the beginning of the 14th century, the monastery was home to the University of Kirna, a school belonging to the Armenian Catholic congregation. Until its abandonment in 1740, numerous ancient philosophical texts were copied and translated here. The central sanctuary of the monastic complex was on the 1988 list of Historical and Cultural Monuments of the

Soviet Azerbaijan The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, also referred to as the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, Azerbaijan SSR, Azerbaijani SSR, AzSSR, Soviet Azerbaijan or simply Azerbaijan, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent re ...

as a "mausoleum". The vaulted monastic buildings and monks' cells that lined the structure on three sides were completely ruined by the late Soviet period.

Destruction

The central sanctuary of the monastic complex was still extant by 2001 and by November 11, 2009, the structure had been demolished and its traces removed from the site, as documented by investigation of the Caucasus Heritage Watch.

References

{{coord missing, Azerbaijan Destroyed Armenian Apostolic monasteries in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic