Vartashen

Vartashen lies in the southern foothills of the Caucasus, in the country between Shaki and Qabala. It was a home of the Udi, a Christian people whose language preserves a close connection with the old language of Caucasian Albania. Local religious life joined the heritage of the Albanian church to the traditions of neighboring Christian communities. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries a rival catholicosate was established at Vartashen. Silk production and the spinning of thread also formed part of the settlement's life in this renowned silk-growing region.