Gavit Explained

A gavit (Armenian Armenian: գավիթ gawit‘) or zhamatun (Armenian: Armenian: ժամատուն žamatun) is a congressional room or mausoleum added to the entrance of a church, and therefore often contiguous to its west side, in a Medieval Armenian monastery. It served as narthex (entrance to the church), mausoleum and assembly room, somewhat like the narthex or lite of a Byzantine church.^[1] As an architectural element, the gavit was distinct from the church, and built afterwards. Its first known instance is at the Horomos Monastery, dated to 1038, when it was already called "žamatun".^{[2] [3]} The term "gavit" started to replace the term zhamatum from 1181, when it first appears in an inscription at the Sanahin Monastery.^[4]

History

The gavit, the distinctive Armenian style of narthex, appeared in the tenth and eleventh centuries.^[5] The first structures in the 10th century were simple quadrangular buildings without columns and protected by wooden roofs, used as dynastic necropoleis.^[6] From the 11th century, the first known zhamatun with a four-columned structure appears in Hoṙomos Monastery, built in 1038 by King Yovhannēs-Smbat.^[6] The vault was in the shape of an octogonal cone, and was decorated with superb reliefs.^[6]

Many of the first zhamatun or gavits were located in the south of the Armenia in the region of Syunik. The type of construction changed during the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, as found in the monasteries of Saghmosavank of Haritchavank, or Hovhannavank Monastery. They changed again in the late thirteenth century as can be seen in monasteries such as Gandzasar, and gradually ceased to be built in the late Middle Ages.

The general structure of the gavit, with its nine-bayed plan is typical of the nine-bayed plan of mosques from the Abassid period onward, which can be seen from Spain to Central Asia.^[7]

The first mention of a "žamatun" appears in the 1038 dedicatory inscription of Horomos Monastery, which also is the oldest known "žamatun", built in 1038:^[8]

The mention of the term gavit for such buildings appears for the first time more than a century later in 1181 in the dedicatory inscription at the Sanahin Monastery by Abbot Yovhannēs:

It seems that zhamatun was used to refer to new structures built more-or-less contemporaneously with the neighbouring church to serve funerary or commemorative functions, while the terms gavit referred to a space built next to older churches, covering existing ancient gravestones.^[9] "Gawit‘" had an ancient meaning of "open courtyard" referring to the existing space around old churches where the graves of the nobility were already placed, while žami tun means “house of hours” in Armenian, "zam" designating a time of the day dedicated to prayer.^[9]

Structure

The earliest style of gavit consists of an oblong vault supported by double arches, with an erdik (lantern or oculus) center, and adorned with eight decorated slabs, as seen in the earliest known gavit at Horomos dated 1038.^{[2] [3]} In later types the vault would often be decorated with muqarnas stalactite designs.^[10] This early type of muqarnas vault used cut stone in a way similar to that of Anatolian Seljuk architecture, different from the typical Armenian vault construction, which used thin stone facing on mortared rubble.^[11] This form was replaced by a square room with four columns, divided into nine sections with a dome in the center. The muqarnas motif was clearly inspired by Islamic sources, but it was used differently, and the Armenian muqarnas vault with oculus was not found in the Muslim world until it was copied about a century later, as in the vault of the Yakutiye Madrasa in nearby Erzurum (1310).^[12] The "lightwell" itself, with central oculus, is known in Anatolian art from earlier periods, as in the Divriği Great Mosque and Hospital (built 1228-1229).^[13] The last evolution consists of a gavit without columns and with arched ceilings.

On the west side of the Church of the Holy Redeemer in the Sanahin Monastery complex, the gavit built in 1181 has four tall free-standing internal pillars supporting arches. The pillars and their bases are elaborately decorated. In the same complex, the gavit of the Mother of God church is a three-nave hall with lower arches and less elaborate decorations on the pillars.^[14]

Major examples

Some major examples of gavits and zhamatuns, ordered chronologically:

Notes and References

1. Book: 84 . The Caucasian knot: the history & geopolitics of Nagorno-Karabagh . . . . Zed Books . 1994 . 1-85649-288-5.
2. Vardanyan . Edda . The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit‘ Structures in Armenien Architecture . Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz . 1 January 2015 . 207 .
3. Ghazarian . Armen . Ousterhout . Robert . A Muqarnas Drawing from Thirteenth-Century Armenia and the Use of Architectural Drawings during the Middle Ages . Muqarnas . 2001 . 18 . 145-146 . 10.2307/1523305 . 0732-2992.
4. Vardanyan . Edda . The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit‘ Structures in Armenien Architecture . Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz . 1 January 2015 . 208 .
5. Medieval Armenian architecture: constructions of race and nation Christina Maranci – 2001 "Unlike Strzygowski, who stressed the importance of race and nation in the formation of architecture, ... Another structure at Ani also provided Baltrusaitis with an ogive — the narthex or gavit' located at the south side of the church."
6. Vardanyan . Edda . The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit‘ Structures in Armenien Architecture . Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz . 1 January 2015 . 207 . From the end of the 10th century, simple quadrangular buildings without columns but with wooden roofs appeared adjacent to churches (mainly on the western side), serving as dynastic necropoleis. No particular name was given to them. No particular name was given to them. The oldest of such centrally-planned four-columned ante-ecclesial structures is that of Hoṙomos Monastery, built in 1038 by King Yovhannēs-Smbat together with the Upper Church of St. John (Surb-Yovhannēs). It has a rectangular ground plan and four central columns. The ceiling is shaped like an octagonal cone and is decorated with sumptuous reliefs, while externally an eight-column rotunda rises above the entire construction..
7. Ghazarian . Armen . Ousterhout . Robert . A Muqarnas Drawing from Thirteenth-Century Armenia and the Use of Architectural Drawings during the Middle Ages . Muqarnas . 2001 . 18 . 146 . 10.2307/1523305 . 0732-2992 . The common nine-bayed plan of the gavit calls to mind the typical nine-bayed mosque plan that spread through-out the Islamic world from Central Asia to Spain after the Abbasid era; at the same time, the domed, nine-bayed design was common for the naos of both Byzantine and Armenian church..
8. Vardanyan . Edda . The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit‘ Structures in Armenien Architecture . Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz . 1 January 2015 . 207 .
9. Vardanyan . Edda . The Žamatun of Hoṙomos and the Žamatun/Gawit‘ Structures in Armenien Architecture . Hoṙomos Monastery: Art and History, edited by Edda Vardanyan, Paris : ACHCByz . 1 January 2015 . 221 . All the above discussion permits the following conclusions. Those structures that were built next to and almost simultaneously with newly founded churches with the specific purpose of serving a funerary/commemorative function were called žamatun, while those built adjacent to older churches, covering already existing gravestones were called gawit‘. This hypothesis is further confirmed by a historical-philological analysis of the respective terms..
10. Ghazarian . Armen . Ousterhout . Robert . A Muqarnas Drawing from Thirteenth-Century Armenia and the Use of Architectural Drawings during the Middle Ages . Muqarnas . 2001 . 18 . 145 . 10.2307/1523305 . 0732-2992 . lts. Above the square central space was a complex muqarnas vault, measuring just over 5 m on each side, with a central erdik or oculus, which may have originally been covered by a colonnated canopy..
11. Ghazarian . Armen . Ousterhout . Robert . A Muqarnas Drawing from Thirteenth-Century Armenia and the Use of Architectural Drawings during the Middle Ages . Muqarnas . 2001 . 18 . 151 . 10.2307/1523305 . 0732-2992 . Working similarly with cut stone, the Seljuq muqarnas provide a close technical comparison to Armenian construction. It is worth noting that the corbelled construction of the Armenian muqarnas vaults are technically and structurally closer to the Seljuq examples than they are to typical Armenian vault construction, which had a thin stone facing on a mortared rubble..
12. Book: Eastmond . Antony . Tamta's World: The Life and Encounters of a Medieval Noblewoman from the Middle East to Mongolia . 1 January 2017 . 10.1017/9781316711774.011 . 297 . Cambridge University Press . The most obvious architectural form that was adopted in Armenian churches was the muqarnas vault. A fine example is the complex muqarnas that was used to build up the central vault of the zhamatun at Harichavank, which was added to the main church in the monastery by 1219. The origin of this type of vaulting clearly comes from Islamic sources, but it is used very differently here. There are no comparable examples in the Islamic world of using it to form complete vaults with an oculus in the centre. Throughout Anatolia in this period muqarnas were used to form niche heads. It was used for domes elsewhere in the Islamic world, as at Nur al-Din Zangi’s 1174 hospital in Damascus, but conceived very differently: the monastic muqarnas are structurally pendentives, whereas the Damascus dome is a succession of stucco squinches. A generation later the Armenian use of muqarnas was re-imported into the Muslim world, and buildings such as the Yakutiye Madrasa in Erzurum (1310) copied the idea of a muqarnas vault around an oculus..
13. Book: Akurgal . Ekrem . The Art and Architecture of Turkey . 1980 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-8478-0273-9 . en.
14. Book: Armenia: with Nagorno Karabagh . Nicholas Holding . Bradt Travel Guides . 2006 . 1-84162-163-3 . 161.