Exterior

For this tour, see GUYANEH VANK plan. Points appear inside "()" of this plan.

The front Portico (10) was constructed in 1683 and was covered with Frescos (12, 16) in the Hovnatanian school (17th-18th cc). Fragments and sections can still be seen, though the ceilings were stripped to their brick inner layers long ago. Further damage to frescos occurred in the Soviet period, and those that remain were preserved during an extensive renovation in 1960-1962.

Two Khachkars (14) flank the entrance under signs entitled "Singing Walls" asking visitors not to deface the remaining frescos with graffiti, since "these walls already have their stories".

The Northern and Southern ends of the portico have been closed off with walls imbedded with Khachkars (11, 17) from the 10th and early 11th centuries As you look at the bottom of the khachkars (especially the two large ones on the North end), you will see Armenian letters carved around the sun disk.

Dating Old Khachkars

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These letters are actually numbers, using Mashtots' original counting system, where each letter of the alphabet represented a number between 1 and 9000.

Dates on stone monuments are often marked by the letters Âì or the like, often with a line over them, indicating "t'vin" ("in the year") followed by one to four letters, each of which stands for a number based on its place in the Mashtots alphabet.

Medieval dating inscriptions are based on the Armenian Calendar system, which began in 552 AD. To translate into AD years, add 551 to the dates found on early and middle medieval monuments. Later monuments (beginning in the 17th c. or so), adopted our "standard" dating system.

Having said all this, there are a number of exceptions to this rule, and you may wrong as much as you are right, since numbering and dating in Armenia was as subject to the dominating cultural calendar as anything else. When under Arab domination, the Islamic calendric system was imposed, when under Russian domination, the Gregorian Calendar was in vogue. There are monuments that incoproate more then one dating system, including the Armenian Era. It can be confusing.

The northern Khachkar on the left (11b) does not have the letters Âì, and is inscribed è Ò ¼ , literally "1000+80+6", or the year 1086, either AE (Armenian Era) or 1637 AD which is unlikely for this work. The one on the right (11a) is inscribed Â æ ¾ or (t'vin) 907 AE (Armenian Era), possibly 1458 AD.

Khachkars on the south end (17) have been defaced except for that on the lower right, which is inscribed  è Æ À, literally "9-1000-20-8" in the old counting system, which signifies either "t'vin" or the 9th month of the 1028th year. Either interpretation is possible.

The portico also holds 18 burial vaults (13, 15) from the 17th-19th centuries Including those for several Katoghikos. The inscriptions are mostly written in Grapar, or old Armenian, which is something of a lost language, and is almost impossible to decipher to the average Armenian.

Among the inscriptions found on the gravestones, the gravestone on the north end of the portico (13f), stands reads in part, "The Prince killed…Russian Ambassador…Georgia in 1829 January 30th. In his grave 1829 April 26." Since this date was at the time of the Russian-Persian Wars and the beginning of Armenia's Czarist period, it seems this anonymous figure earned his place of prominence at Guyaneh as a member of the resistance.