Site Description

At the northern edge of Göllü Ovasi (see the bottom of this page) a steep track runs up to the summit of the lowest part of the ridge overlooking Lake Van. This track then descends to the east, at a more relaxed angle, ending at the walls of the monastery of Saint George.

The monastery lies beside the shores of lake Van, within a compact and almost square fortified enclosure. The masonry of the enclosure wall is not bonded into the structure of the church, implying that it is a later construction and the church was originally free-standing. There are oval shaped defensive towers at the south-east and north-east corners of the wall. The wall's masonry shows two distinct layers: the bottom three quarters was constructed using roughly shaped but regularly laid stone blocks, the top third uses larger and less regularly shaped stones. Thierry noted an inscription that was inserted high in the south wall, bearing the date 1760. It said "Remember us in Christ, the sinners Ter Basil and the monk Lazare who had this wall (re)built". There are other inscribed stones in the wall: some are still in-situ, some have fallen and are lying on the ground.

There is a graveyard site to the south of the monastery wall, as well as traces of levelled and formerly cultivated land to the west.

The entrance to the enclosure was at the northern end of its east wall. This entrance is now destroyed, but Thierry saw it when it was intact and noted a small window above the entrance. This suggests that the doorway gave access directly into a room, rather than an open courtyard. Monastic buildings seem to have filled most of the space inside the walls, but these buildings are now reduced to low foundations.

Design Analysis

The church is constructed mostly from roughly squared stone blocks of schist. However, visually important parts of the church were more carefully finished using blocks of black tufa stone: these included cornices, window arches, and roofing slabs. Inside, the rough masonry of the lower walls was hidden behind a thick coating of white plaster. All of the interior above the cornice level - the dome, drum, squinches, ceiling vaults, and arches - was faced with carefully cut tufa stone.

The church has a single entrance in the west facade. It is a simple rectangular opening, with a plain lintel carved from a thick block of white stone. The lintel bears crudely hammered inscriptions, but they all seem to be from a much later date. The doorway is now so clogged with earth and rubble that it is necessary to crawl under the lintel to enter the church.

The monastery church has a "domed hall" type of plan,. The bay underneath the dome is, in fact, a rectangle - and the drum of the dome is oval. The transition from rectangle to oval is accomplished via squinches. There are three windows in the drum - an unusual number - and there are shallow niches between each window. Seen from outside the drum is almost circular. The roof above the drum was conical - its cladding of tufa slabs was almost intact in the early 1970s, but is now mostly destroyed.

The altar apse was raised above the floor level of the nave. Corner chambers on two floors flank the altar apse. The upper chambers were entered, probably using a ladder, through rectangular openings inserted high up in the east walls of the north and south arms. There are also upper chambers at the north west and south west corners - these were entered through rectangular openings in the external facade.