Gladzor

Gladzor lies in the rugged uplands of Vayots Dzor, between the gorge of the Arpa and the Yeghegis valley, where the monastery of Aghberts grew into the most famous school of medieval Armenia. Around 1280 Nerses of Mush founded the University of Gladzor, which flourished under the patronage of the Orbelian and Proshian princes. Esayi Nchetsi headed it until 1331; it had at least nine professors and fifteen lecturers, gave its own degrees, and taught theology, grammar, rhetoric, logic, astronomy, mathematics, music and the art of copying and illuminating manuscripts. About 350 students graduated as vardapets.

The painters Toros Taronatsi, Avag and Momik worked here, and Momik, who died in 1333, also carved the khachkars and the church of the Holy Mother of God at Noravank, the Orbelian princes' monastery above the Amaghu gorge. The princes lived at Yeghegis nearby, and the Zorats Church there was designed so that cavalry could take communion without dismounting. After the university closed about 1340, its tradition passed to the University of Tatev in Syunik. Timur's armies, Turkmen raiders and Persian rule brought the Orbelian dynasty to an end by the fifteenth century, and earthquakes and exile emptied the old centres of learning.