Vank Cathedral 

Before you enter the biggest church in Isfahan, Vank Cathedral (Vank means monastery in Armenian language), you see the sculpture of an Armenian archbishop, Khachatur Gesaratsi, who made the first printing machine in Iran and founded the first printing press of the Middle East. Before entering, the exterior brick decoration and a dome on top of the church catch your eyes. The dome resembles that of an Iranian mosque, though not tiled. The reason for this was to discriminate the churches of Armenians from the mosques of Muslims. Also, another eye-catching element is the clock tower, with its clock being donated to the church in 1930.  The Armenian inscription under the clock, displays the name of Shah Abbas II and the dates when the construction of the new building of the church began and ended. Entering the church, you will pass the ticket office and the gift shop to reach the spacious yard. On the left, you will see the memorial dedicated to the Armenian genocide done by the Ottoman government. The memorial contains two dates, one representing the date of actual genocide (1915) and the other representing the date of memorial's construction (1975). You also find the library and the museum on the northern side of the courtyard. The graveyard of the church is the resting place of such eminent people as the above-mentioned Archbishop, Khachatur Gesaratsi, Archbishop David, the founder of the current cathedral, the English colonel, Alexander Decover, and Andrew Jukes, the Russian consul and the director of the Imperial Russian Bank in Iran.

Inside the church, the interior tilework, gold work and paintings welcome visitors passionate about exploring Iranian, Latin and Russian art at the same time. When it was founded, during the Shah Abbas' era, around 1606, the church was a small prayer hall without any paintings. It was named Amenapergich (meaning holly saviors), borrowed from the Armenians' church in Nakhchivān (the church is still alternatively called so). The church turned into its current state when an Armenian merchant, Khajeh Avadich Stepanusian, inspired by the impressions he had received during his travel to Italy, plagued the priests to let him paint the walls for the sake of making God more pleased. Actually, the current building was completed in Shah Safi’s era, around 1664. When Jane Dieulafoy visited the church, she described its walls as being covered with Old Testament paintings by Italian priests.  She also maintained that the church was built like a Greek cross, with a high dome and lit by the light shining through the eight windows at its base. Based on the inscription on the northern wall, the decoration of the place was sponsored by Khajeh Avadich Stepanusian. As the inscription says, he died in 1669. 

The decoration style of the inside walls has had a great influence on the other churches of the 17th century onwards. Previously, the tradition dictated simple interior walls and minor carvings on the facade. But, gradually, Armenians became skilled painters, so much so that one of them was invited to Moscow to paint the walls of Kremlin palace in 1667. So, because of these changes, you can now enjoy the frescos on the dome and interior walls in Italian and Dutch style. On the southern side, there are two rows of paintings: the first row represents scenes of the Old Testament and the lower row depicts scenes of the New Testament. On the northernmost side, there is the biggest painting, depicting heaven, hell and the purgatory. The creation of Adam is pictured exactly under the dome and the sacrifice of Isma’il is portrayed on the left side of the altar. Many of these paintings are the work of Irano-Arminian painters, like Bogdan Saltanov.