Trdat the Architect was the chief architect of the Bagratid kings of Armenia, and most notable for his design of the cathedral at Ani and his reconstruction of the dome of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.
Exterior of the Hagia Sophia, 2013
Bagratid Armenia was an independent Armenian state established by Ashot I Bagratuni of the Bagratuni dynasty in the early 880s following nearly two centuries of foreign domination of Greater Armenia under Arab Umayyad and Abbasid rule. With each of the two contemporary powers in the region—the Abbasids and Byzantines—too preoccupied to concentrate their forces on subjugating the region, and with the dissipation of several of the Armenian nakharar noble families, Ashot succeeded in asserting himself as the leading figure of a movement to dislodge the Arabs from Armenia.
Relief carvings of Smbat and Gurgen Bagratuni at Sanahin
A statue of King Gagik I that originally had him holding a model of the Church of St. Gregory.
Royal enthronement scene from the frontispiece of a gospel commissioned by Gagik-Abas, ruler of Kars circa 1050.
The Cathedral of Ani, completed in 1001 by Trdat the Architect