Sīāh Cheshmeh

Siah Cheshmeh lies in the high country of Chaldiran, south of Maku. Nearby stands the Armenian monastery of Saint Thaddeus, also known as the Black Church. Surrounded by fortified walls, it was an important religious centre whose church is traditionally associated with the apostle Thaddeus. An earthquake destroyed the monastery in 1319, after which Bishop Zachariah undertook its reconstruction.

The monastery remained a focus of Armenian religious life through the centuries that followed. Its church and fortifications were repaired in the seventeenth century, and in the early nineteenth century a new white church was added to the older dark stone building. The complex, with its conical dome and carved masonry, reflects the enduring Armenian presence in the highlands of northwestern Iran.