- Project Runeberg -  Armenia and the Near East /
278

(1928) [MARC] Author: Fridtjof Nansen - Tema: Russia
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278 ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
the antiquity of the church in its final shape, there are
similar " Gothic " features in a more or less developed
form in many other churches of the same and of earlier date
in Armenia.
The development of this style of church probably came about
as follows. The long church with Mesopotamian barrel
vaulting was adopted from the south, and this was combined
with the square-domed church, with its outer surrounding
lobby and four piers standing by themselves in the middle.
Thus arose the three-aisled church. The most ancient church
of the kind may have been St. Gregory’s church at Dvin,
erected at the beginning of the seventh century and destroyed
by an earthquake in the ninth century. 1
Specially Gothic features in the cathedral at Ani and in
other churches of the same shape are :
The constructional use of the pointed ard, especially in the
four main arches which join the four piers and support the
central dome. The pointed arch is also found in non-ecclesi
astical buildings, such as the castle at Ani. Clusters of columns,
the logical development of which can be traced step by step
from the original four corner piers supporting the dome.
These clusters of columns on the piers are also connected with
clustered columns on the pilasters on the walls. Ribbed
vaulting, of which there are indications in several Armenian
churches and monasteries. And lastly, mention must be made
of the visible strengthening of the walls that bear the weight
of the central dome by supporting niches. This is the same
constructional idea that wc find in the flying buttresses
of Gothic architecture, and it may have led up to that
development.
These first beginnings of Gothic may have come to West
Europe with the large numbers of Armenians who scattered
over its various countries in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Another important connection may have been through the
Armenian kingdom of Cilicia, which maintained lively inter
course with the Crusaders after the close of the eleventh
century, and through them came into touch with the West of
Europe as well. Thus Gothic architecture, the great new
See Strzygowski, op. eit., vol. i, pp. 163 ff.

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