Vorotnavank is a monastic complex located along a ridge overlooking the Vorotan gorge, between the villages of Vaghatin and Vorotan, about 14 km east of Sisian in the Syunik Province of Armenia. The complex is surrounded by a high stone wall for defense against foreign invasions and once housed workshops, stores, a seminary, resort, cemetery and an alms-house. A pillar stood in the yard of the monastery symbolizing that there were monks entering into religious service and kings inaugurated at this location. Hovhan Vorotnetsi (1315-1398), an Armenian medieval philosopher and theologian as well as the founder of Tatev Vardapetaran University lived and worked at the monastery.
The monastic complex of Vorotnavank.
Interior of the apse at Vorotnavank.
Vorotnavank with monastery wall, monastery garden and old cemetery
Image: Vorotnavank Monastery 2011 1
Sisian is a town and the centre of the Sisian Municipality of the Syunik Province in southern Armenia. It is located on both banks of the Vorotan River, at an altitude of 1600 m above sea level, 6 km south of the Yerevan-Meghri highway, at a road distance of 217 km southeast of the capital Yerevan, and 115 km north of the provincial capital Kapan.
From top left: Saint Gregory Church of 689 • Sisian Town Hall • Ughtasar Petroglyphs • Shaki Waterfall • Vorotnavank • General view of Sisian • Sisian with Mt Mets Ishkhanasar • Vorotan River
Tombstones of pre-Christian era in Sisian
Zorats Karer archaeological site
7th-century St. Gregory Church overlooking Sisian
