St. Hripsime, Armenian Apostolic church in Vagharshapat, Armenia

St. Hripsime is an Armenian Apostolic church in Vagharshapat with a rectangular exterior and a cross-shaped interior created by four attached niches supporting the central dome. The complex includes underground chambers that house early Christian burials.

A martyrium was first built at this site after Tiridates III's conversion, and in 395 Catholicos Sahak Partev replaced the earlier one destroyed by Shapur II with a chapel-martyrium that the historian Sebeos called too low and dark. In 618 Catholicos Komitas demolished that chapel and built the present church, as two inscriptions in erkat'agir uncial script record. Excavations in 1976–78 found the foundations of the earlier single-nave basilica about 10 m east of the current building.

Hripsime was a Roman virgin who fled to Armenia and was killed by King Tiridates III after rejecting his advances; after his conversion, he and Gregory the Illuminator built a martyrium over her grave. The church is a popular wedding venue, hosting 472 weddings and 536 baptisms in 2013, and is often visited by Armenian and foreign dignitaries.

The church stands on a small natural rise on the eastern edge of Vagharshapat, beside the main road to Yerevan, so it is reached on foot from the town centre. The excavated Hellenistic cornice fragments are kept under protective glass inside. The site covers 6.2 hectares and is regulated jointly by the Ministry of Culture and the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Excavations beneath the church revealed remains of a Hellenistic structure, showing that a pagan temple once occupied this location. This layering demonstrates how Christian shrine sites were often built upon places that held religious importance in ancient times.