Surp Bogos Bedros Church, Medieval church ruins in Zovuni, Armenia.
Surp Bogos Bedros is a 5th-century Armenian church on the left bank of the Aparan Reservoir in Aragatsotn Province. It was built as a three-nave basilica and rebuilt in the early 6th century by Prince Grigor Gntuni as a domed hall, with a horseshoe apse inside and rectangular outside. Its roof and south wall collapsed in the 20th century, and since 1967 it has stood in the reservoir, submerged for three to four months a year up to window height.
Built in the first half of the 5th century as a basilica, the church was rebuilt at the end of that century or the start of the 6th by Prince Grigor Gntuni as a domed hall, the first of its type in Armenian architecture. It was renovated in 1896, when a wooden roof replaced the stone one. In the 20th century the roof and south wall collapsed; from 1967 the Aparen reservoir flooded it for three to four months a year, and in 2005 the east wall fell after prolonged immersion.
The village of Zovuni was submerged when the Aparan reservoir was built in the 1960s, and the church has stood in water for three to four months each year since 1967, up to window height. Its neighbour, the small single-nave Tukh Manuk basilica of the 4th–5th centuries, and the 5th-century St. Vardan chapel-tomb were moved in 1965–1967 to the Khacher area east of the village and rebuilt at their preserved size.
The church stands on a slope on the left bank of the Aparan reservoir, in Aragatsotn Province; the village of Zovuni itself was submerged when the reservoir was built. From 1967 it stays under water three to four months a year, up to window height, so time a visit to the low-water period. The eastern wall collapsed in 2005 after prolonged flooding, so approach the masonry with care.
On the north-east pier survives a carved inscription of Prince Grigor Gntuni, who owned the Zovuni area and rebuilt the church; the masonry courses also carry chamfered edges and masons' marks. The piers and apse were added without structural bonding to the older walls, blocking one of the original doors in the south-east corner.
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