Bana cathedral
Encyclopedia
Bana or Banak , is a ruined medieval
Christian
cathedral
in the Erzurum Province
, northeastern Turkey
, in what had formerly been a historical marchland known to Armenians as Tayk
and to Georgians as Tao
.
Bana is a large tetraconch
design, surrounded by a near-rotunda
polygonal ambulatory
and marked with a cylindrical drum. After the area repassed on to Georgian control in the 8th century (as part of Tao-Klarjeti
), the church was reconstructed by the Georgian ruler Adarnase IV
at some point between 881 and 923, and emerged in written records in the 11th century Georgian chronicles. Henceforth, it was used as a royal cathedral by the Georgian Bagratid dynasty
until the Ottoman
conquest of the area in the 16th century. The former cathedral was converted into a fortress by the Ottoman army during the Crimean War
in the 1850s and was almost completely ruined during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78.
The Bana cathedral is located on the north bank of the Penek (Irlağaç) Çayi near the village of Penek, Şenkaya district
, Erzurum Province
, Turkey. "Penek" is a Turkified typonym deriving from the original name of the area "Banak". It means "army" in Armenian and possibly takes its origin from the site in the Berdats Por district of Tayk
– then a hereditary Mamikonid
fief – where the royal army (Արքունի բանակ, Ark'uni Banak) was headquartered during the rule of Arshakuni in the Kingdom of Armenia in the 1st century. The name entered the Georgian usage in the form of Bana because of the Georgian phonology, which makes the "k" sound silent.
, who reports that the Georgian prince Adarnase IV
(r. 881-923) ordered the building of the church of Bana "by the hand" of Kwirike, who subsequently became the first bishop of Bana. While the scholars such as Ekvtime Taqaishvili, Shalva Amiranashvili, and Stepan Mnatsakanyan tend to interpret the passage literally, Chubinashvili
, Vakhtang Beridze and Tiran Marutyan identify Adarnase as a renovator, not a builder of the church. This view, now shared by most art scholars, dates the Bana church – clearly modeled on the contemporaneous Zvartnots cathedral near Yerevan
– to the mid-7th century. It was when the Chalcedonian
-Armenian catholicos Nerses III, who presided over several important religious projects Zvartnots included, resided in exile in Tayk c. 653-58.
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Devastated during the 8th century by the Byzantine–Arab war, the region of Tayk/Tao was gradually resettled by its new masters, the Georgian Bagratids, and under their patronage a monastic revival took place. With the settlements gradually expanding from the predominantly Georgian-populated north to the predominantly Armenian populated south and south-west, the Georgian princes reconstructed a number of monasteries abandoned by Armenians and built new foundations.
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From the time of Adarnase’s reconstruction, the cathedral of Bana was one of the principal royal churches of the early Georgian Bagratids. It was used for the coronation of Bagrat IV
in 1027 and his marriage to Helena
, a niece of the Byzantine emperor Romanos III Argyros in 1032. In the 15th century, King Vakhtang IV of Georgia
(r. 1442-1446) and his consort Sitikhatun were buried at Bana. It was also the seat of the Georgian Orthodox bishop of Bana, whose diocese also included the neighboring areas of Taos-Kari, Panaskerti, and Oltisi
. With the Ottoman conquest of the area in the 16th century, Bana was abandoned by Christians. During the Crimean War
(1853–1865), the Ottoman military converted the church into a fortress, adding the crude bulwark still visible on the south side. During the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78, it was shelled by the Russian
artillery, blasting the dome off and inflicting severe damage on the edifice. Later the Russians carted off much of masonry to build a late-19th century church in Oltu.
The church was first described and sketched by the German
botanist Karl Koch
in 1843. He declared it the most remarkable church in the East after the Hagia Sophia
. Koch was followed by the Russian ethnographer Yevgeny Veidenbaum in 1879 and the Georgian historian Dimitri Bakradze
in 1881. The latter two found the church already without a dome, but reported about still surviving frescos and a Georgian inscription in the asomtavruli script. From 1902 to 1907, the ruins of Bana were scrupulously studied by an expedition led by the Georgian archaeologist Ekvtime Taqaishvili. Inaccessible to Soviet
nationals, the monument was a subject of study of some Western
scholars during the Cold War
era.
-in-ambulatory
(aisle
d tetraconch) style probably influenced by the “Golden Octagon” at Antioch
and culminating in the 7th-century Armenian
architecture in the Zvartnots design. It is a large tetraconch with three-tiered choirs and arcades in the lower parts of each apse
. It is encased in a continuous near-rotunda polygonal ambulatory with its diameter of 37.45 m. and with its façades adorned with colonnades. The interior is essentially a large pyramid formed by the exterior polygon, tetraconch and the cupola resting upon a cylindrical drum. The pylons, located between the arms of the tetraconch, accommodate galleries arranged along three tiers.
The lower portions of each of the four apses, instead of having an unbroken wall, open through arches towards the ambulatory. The building is more than 30 m tall. The architectural details are notable for high craftsmanship and artistry. Round pillars, located within the span of the apses and galleries, are provided with capitals adorned with volutes. The façade is provided with a row of blind arches along its perimeter. The arches are adorned with floral ornaments. What presently remains of the church is the first floor half-submerged in its own ruins, the east apse with a colonnade and a one ambulatory column with its carved capital.
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
Christian
Eastern Christianity
Eastern Christianity comprises the Christian traditions and churches that developed in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Middle East, Northeastern Africa, India and parts of the Far East over several centuries of religious antiquity. The term is generally used in Western Christianity to...
cathedral
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
in the Erzurum Province
Erzurum Province
Erzurum Province is a Province of Turkey, in the Eastern Anatolia Region of the country. It is bordered by the provinces of Kars and Ağrı to the east, Muş and Bingöl to the south, Erzincan and Bayburt to the west, Rize and Artvin to the north and Ardahan to the northeast. The provincial capital is...
, northeastern Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, in what had formerly been a historical marchland known to Armenians as Tayk
Tayk
Tayk was a historical province of the Greater Armenia, one of its 15 ashkars . Tayk consisted of 8 cantons:* Kogh* Berdats por* Partizats por* Tchakatk* Bokha* Vokaghe* Azordats por* Arsiats por....
and to Georgians as Tao
Tao (historical region)
Tao is a historical region in the territory of modern Turkey roughly corresponding to the Taochi of Greeks and Tayk of Armenians. It was a province within various Georgian Bagratid states from the 8th to the 16th century, when the region was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.-External references:*...
.
Bana is a large tetraconch
Tetraconch
A tetraconch, from the Greek for "four shells", is a building, usually a church or other religious building, with four apses, one in each direction, usually of equal size. The basic ground plan of the building is therefore a Greek cross...
design, surrounded by a near-rotunda
Rotunda (architecture)
A rotunda is any building with a circular ground plan, sometimes covered by a dome. It can also refer to a round room within a building . The Pantheon in Rome is a famous rotunda. A Band Rotunda is a circular bandstand, usually with a dome...
polygonal ambulatory
Ambulatory
The ambulatory is the covered passage around a cloister. The term is sometimes applied to the procession way around the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar....
and marked with a cylindrical drum. After the area repassed on to Georgian control in the 8th century (as part of Tao-Klarjeti
Tao-Klarjeti
Tao-Klarjeti is the term conventionally used in modern history writing to describe the historic south-western Georgian principalities, now forming part of north-eastern Turkey and divided among the provinces of Erzurum, Artvin, Ardahan and Kars...
), the church was reconstructed by the Georgian ruler Adarnase IV
Adarnase IV of Iberia
Adarnase IV was a member of the Georgian Bagratid dynasty of Tao-Klarjeti and prince of Iberia/Kartli, responsible for the restoration of kingship, which had been in abeyance since it had been abolished by Iran in the sixth century, in 888....
at some point between 881 and 923, and emerged in written records in the 11th century Georgian chronicles. Henceforth, it was used as a royal cathedral by the Georgian Bagratid dynasty
Bagrationi Dynasty
The Bagrationi dynasty was the ruling family of Georgia. Their ascendency lasted from the early Middle Ages until the early 19th century. In modern usage, this royal line is frequently referred to as the Georgian Bagratids, a Hellenized form of their dynastic name.The origin of the Bagrationi...
until the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
conquest of the area in the 16th century. The former cathedral was converted into a fortress by the Ottoman army during the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
in the 1850s and was almost completely ruined during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78.
Location and etymology
Senkaya
Şenkaya is a town and district of Erzurum Province in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. The mayor is Görbil Özcan . the population is 2,803 ....
, Erzurum Province
Erzurum Province
Erzurum Province is a Province of Turkey, in the Eastern Anatolia Region of the country. It is bordered by the provinces of Kars and Ağrı to the east, Muş and Bingöl to the south, Erzincan and Bayburt to the west, Rize and Artvin to the north and Ardahan to the northeast. The provincial capital is...
, Turkey. "Penek" is a Turkified typonym deriving from the original name of the area "Banak". It means "army" in Armenian and possibly takes its origin from the site in the Berdats Por district of Tayk
Tayk
Tayk was a historical province of the Greater Armenia, one of its 15 ashkars . Tayk consisted of 8 cantons:* Kogh* Berdats por* Partizats por* Tchakatk* Bokha* Vokaghe* Azordats por* Arsiats por....
– then a hereditary Mamikonid
Mamikonian
Mamikonian, Mamikoneans, or Mamigonian was a noble family which dominated Armenian politics between the 4th and 8th century. They ruled the Armenian regions of Taron, Sasun, Bagrevand and others...
fief – where the royal army (Արքունի բանակ, Ark'uni Banak) was headquartered during the rule of Arshakuni in the Kingdom of Armenia in the 1st century. The name entered the Georgian usage in the form of Bana because of the Georgian phonology, which makes the "k" sound silent.
History
The dating of the Bana cathedral has been a subject of scholarly debate. The Bana cathedral is first mentioned in the 11th-century chronicle of SumbatSumbat Davitis-Dze
Sumbat Davitis-Dze , or Sumbat, son of David, in modern English transliteration, was the 11th-century Georgian chronicler who described in his The Life and Tale of the Bagratids the history of the Bagrationi Dynasty of Georgia from the beginnings until c. 1030. The Georgian scholar Ekvtime...
, who reports that the Georgian prince Adarnase IV
Adarnase IV of Iberia
Adarnase IV was a member of the Georgian Bagratid dynasty of Tao-Klarjeti and prince of Iberia/Kartli, responsible for the restoration of kingship, which had been in abeyance since it had been abolished by Iran in the sixth century, in 888....
(r. 881-923) ordered the building of the church of Bana "by the hand" of Kwirike, who subsequently became the first bishop of Bana. While the scholars such as Ekvtime Taqaishvili, Shalva Amiranashvili, and Stepan Mnatsakanyan tend to interpret the passage literally, Chubinashvili
Giorgi Chubinashvili
Giorgi Chubinashvili was a Georgian art historian.Born in St. Petersburg, he studied psychology at the universities of Leipzig and Halle , and Georgian-Armenian-Persian philology at the Petrograd University . Returning to Georgia, he served as a professor at the Tbilisi State University...
, Vakhtang Beridze and Tiran Marutyan identify Adarnase as a renovator, not a builder of the church. This view, now shared by most art scholars, dates the Bana church – clearly modeled on the contemporaneous Zvartnots cathedral near Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
– to the mid-7th century. It was when the Chalcedonian
Chalcedonian
Chalcedonian describes churches and theologians which accept the definition given at the Council of Chalcedon of how the divine and human relate in the person of Jesus Christ...
-Armenian catholicos Nerses III, who presided over several important religious projects Zvartnots included, resided in exile in Tayk c. 653-58.
Bagrat IV of Georgia
Bagrat IV , of the Bagrationi dynasty, was the King of Georgia from 1027 to 1072. During his long and eventful reign, Bagrat sought to repress the great nobility and to secure Georgia's sovereignty from the Byzantine and Seljuqid empires...
in 1027 and his marriage to Helena
Helena Argyre
Helena Argyre or Argyropoulaina was a Byzantine princess of the Argyros family and Queen Consort of Georgia as the first wife of King Bagrat IV of the Bagratids. She was given off in marriage by her uncle, the Byzantine emperor Romanos III Argyros, to the boy-king Bagrat c. 1032...
, a niece of the Byzantine emperor Romanos III Argyros in 1032. In the 15th century, King Vakhtang IV of Georgia
Vakhtang IV of Georgia
Vakhtang IV , of the Bagrationi dynasty, was King of Georgia from 1442 until his death.Vakhtang was the eldest son of Alexander I of Georgia by his first wife Dulandukht. He was raised to the co-kingship by his father in 1433...
(r. 1442-1446) and his consort Sitikhatun were buried at Bana. It was also the seat of the Georgian Orthodox bishop of Bana, whose diocese also included the neighboring areas of Taos-Kari, Panaskerti, and Oltisi
Oltu
Oltu is a town and district of Erzurum Province in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. The mayor is İbrahim Ziyrek . The population is 19,969 .-History:...
. With the Ottoman conquest of the area in the 16th century, Bana was abandoned by Christians. During the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
(1853–1865), the Ottoman military converted the church into a fortress, adding the crude bulwark still visible on the south side. During the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78, it was shelled by the Russian
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
artillery, blasting the dome off and inflicting severe damage on the edifice. Later the Russians carted off much of masonry to build a late-19th century church in Oltu.
The church was first described and sketched by the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
botanist Karl Koch
Karl Koch (botanist)
Karl Heinrich Emil Koch was a German botanist. He is best known for his botanical explorations in the Caucasus region, including northeast Turkey. Unfortunately, most of his collections have today been lost. He is also known as the first professional horticultural officer in...
in 1843. He declared it the most remarkable church in the East after the Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey...
. Koch was followed by the Russian ethnographer Yevgeny Veidenbaum in 1879 and the Georgian historian Dimitri Bakradze
Dimitri Bakradze
Dimitri Bakradze was a Georgian scholar who authored several influential works in the history, archaeology and ethnography of Georgia and the Caucasus....
in 1881. The latter two found the church already without a dome, but reported about still surviving frescos and a Georgian inscription in the asomtavruli script. From 1902 to 1907, the ruins of Bana were scrupulously studied by an expedition led by the Georgian archaeologist Ekvtime Taqaishvili. Inaccessible to Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
nationals, the monument was a subject of study of some Western
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
scholars during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
era.
Architecture
Bana recapitulates the so-called tetraconchTetraconch
A tetraconch, from the Greek for "four shells", is a building, usually a church or other religious building, with four apses, one in each direction, usually of equal size. The basic ground plan of the building is therefore a Greek cross...
-in-ambulatory
Ambulatory
The ambulatory is the covered passage around a cloister. The term is sometimes applied to the procession way around the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar....
(aisle
Aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of seats on both sides or with rows of seats on one side and a wall on the other...
d tetraconch) style probably influenced by the “Golden Octagon” at Antioch
Antioch
Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...
and culminating in the 7th-century Armenian
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
architecture in the Zvartnots design. It is a large tetraconch with three-tiered choirs and arcades in the lower parts of each apse
Apse
In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...
. It is encased in a continuous near-rotunda polygonal ambulatory with its diameter of 37.45 m. and with its façades adorned with colonnades. The interior is essentially a large pyramid formed by the exterior polygon, tetraconch and the cupola resting upon a cylindrical drum. The pylons, located between the arms of the tetraconch, accommodate galleries arranged along three tiers.
The lower portions of each of the four apses, instead of having an unbroken wall, open through arches towards the ambulatory. The building is more than 30 m tall. The architectural details are notable for high craftsmanship and artistry. Round pillars, located within the span of the apses and galleries, are provided with capitals adorned with volutes. The façade is provided with a row of blind arches along its perimeter. The arches are adorned with floral ornaments. What presently remains of the church is the first floor half-submerged in its own ruins, the east apse with a colonnade and a one ambulatory column with its carved capital.
Further reading
Abashidze, Irakli. Ed. Georgian Encyclopedia. Vol. IX. Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, 1985. Amiranashvili, Shalva. History of Georgian Art. Tbilisi, Georgian SSR: Khelovneba, 1961. Marutyan, Tiran (2003). Հայ Դասական Ճարտարապետության Ակունքներում (From the Sources of Classical Armenian Architecture). Yerevan: Mughni Publishing. ISBN 9-9941-3303-9. Mnatsakanyan, Stepan. Զվարթնոցը և նույնատիպ հուշարձանները (Zvartnots and Similar Monuments). Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1971.- The Treasures of Tbilisi, New York Times. September 30, 1990.
- Rosen, Roger. Georgia: A Sovereign Country of the Caucasus. Odyssey Publications: Hong Kong, 1999. ISBN 9622177484 Toramanian, TorosToros ToramanianToros Toramanian was a prominent Armenian architect. He is considered "the father of Armenian architectural historiography."-Biography:Toramanian was born in 1864, in the town of Şebinkarahisar, Ottoman Empire...
. Նյութեր հայկական ճարտարապետության պատմության (Materials for the History of Armenian Architecture). vol. ii. Yerevan, Armenian SSR: ArmFan Publishing, 1948.