Saint Gayane Church, 7th-century Armenian church in Vagharshapat, Armenia.

Saint Gayane is a three-nave domed basilica built in 630, with an octagonal drum on four free-standing piers and a semicircular apse flanked by rectangular chambers. Its exterior has a cruciform gable roof, and a triple-arched portico added in 1683 stands against the west facade.

The church was built in 630 AD by Catholicos Ezra I at the site where Saint Gayane suffered martyrdom. A triple-arched portico was added later in 1683 and served as a burial place for important Armenian religious leaders.

The church bears the name of Saint Gayane, an early Christian martyr whose story is tied to this place. Visitors can see frescoes of saints on the interior walls today, reflecting the site's spiritual meaning for the Armenian community.

You can enter the church through the main facade with its grand arched portico or through two additional openings on the north and south sides. The interior can appear quite dim in daylight, so allow your eyes time to adjust when moving from outside.

The triple-arched portico added in 1683 holds the graves of several Armenian catholicoi, among them Yeliazar I of Aintab, who built the monastery buildings and the wall in 1688, and Simeon I of Yerevan, who had a large underground icehouse dug in 1764 to store the monastery's food. Frescoes of clergymen fill the niches along its inner walls.