Bana Cathedral

 cathedral, ruins, archaeological site, Armenian Apostolic church, place of worship

BANAK / BANA CATHEDRAL

Banak (or Banakavank') or Bana (Banaki, Penek, Penyak) is a ruined medieval Armenian Chalcedonian monastery built by Armenian catholicos Nerses Tayetsi in 652 A.D. near the village of Banak (Penek) in Historical Armenia's Tayk province which was emptied of Armenians during Armenian genocide and attached to Turkey after the Turkish agression against Democratic Republic of Armenia in 1920. Armenia's Tayk region came under control of Georgia, during the heyday of the Georgian kingdom, and was called as Tao. Both during the Georgian period and in the Armenian period preceding it, the monastery's parishioners were Chalcedonian Armenians. During the Georgian period of the history of this temple, building inscriptions were made in Georgian, which gave rise to an erroneous opinion about its Georgian origin among some Georgian historians and led to confrontation with the Armenian scientific community.