Tatev

Tatev monastery stands on a cliff above the deep gorge of the Vorotan, its walls and churches rising from the mountain landscape of Syunik. Founded with the support of local princes, it became the seat of the bishop of Syunik and held extensive estates. Its church of Saints Peter and Paul and its manuscript collection made it a centre of Armenian religious and cultural life.

In the late fourteenth century Tatev became home to a celebrated school associated with Hovhan Vorotnetsi and his pupil Grigor Tatevatsi. Students came from Syunik and other Armenian lands to study theology, philosophy, grammar and the arts; scribes and painters also worked at the monastery. The community endured the devastation of Timur's campaigns, and the school continued into the fifteenth century before the monastery was burned during the campaigns of Shah Rukh.