Sis

Sis stands beneath a long, rugged fortress at the northern edge of the Cilician plain. It was the capital of the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia, a mountain stronghold and royal city looking toward the roads to the Mediterranean. Churches, a royal residence and the walls on the height made it a political and religious centre for a kingdom whose rulers dealt with crusaders, Mongols and Mamluks.

After the Mamluk capture of Hromgla in 1292, the Armenian catholicos moved his seat to Sis. The city remained the kingdom's capital through a period of mounting pressure from Egypt. In 1375 Mamluk forces captured Sis and King Levon V, bringing the Armenian kingdom to an end. Manuscript colophons remember the takeover and the fate of religious treasures, some of which were carried away or rescued in the turmoil.

The catholicosate continued at Sis after the kingdom's fall. In 1441, however, a rival catholicos was installed at Etchmiadzin in Armenia, while the Cilician see remained in place. The two centres thereafter maintained separate lines of catholicoi, reflecting the enduring religious importance of both Cilicia and the Armenian highlands. The town never regained its former royal position. Sis passed under new regional rulers and eventually Ottoman authority, but its fortress and ecclesiastical traditions preserved the memory of its former standing.