Mother Cathedral of Etchmiadzin (Vagharshapat (Etchmiadzin))

 cathedral, interesting place, Armenian Apostolic church

Ejmiatzin is the center of the Armenian Church (located in the Armavir district). Ejmiatzin means the coming of the only begotten because it was built were people said Jesus Himself descended from heaven to show where He wanted a church built.
On the territory of Vagharshapat there have survived monuments of various periods of Armenia’s history. Urartu arrows have been found in the temples of Zvartnots and Ejmiatzin and remnants of an ancient hearth of a heathen tabernacle - in the altar part of the latter.
Ejmiatzin cathedral was the main Christian temple of Vagharshapat. Ejmiatzin cathedral is Ejmiatzinthe most ancient Christian temple of Armenia. It was built in 301-303 by Grigor Lusavorich (Gregory the Enlightener), the founder of the Armenian Gregorian church next to the king’s palace, in place of a destroyed heathen basilica. The monastery which took shape around the cathedral is the residence of Catholicos the head of the Armenian clergy.
The interior murals, created by the Armenian painter Naghash Ovnatan in 1720, was restored and elaborated upon by his grandson.
Rich gifts of church-plate and valuable works of applied art kept pouring into Ejmiatzin as the residence of the Catholicos. Three premises, Ejmiatzinnow housing the monastery’s museum, were annexed to the eastern side of the cathedral in 1869 to keep these gifts in.
On the monastery yard there are the buildings of the Catholicosat, a school, a winter and summer refectories, a hostel, Trdat’s gate and other structures.