Vorotnavank Monastery

Vorotnavank (Որոտնավանք) is an ancient monastic complex on a ridge overlooking Armenia’s Vorotan Gorge, about 14 kilometres east of Sisian in Syunik Province. A stone defensive wall once surrounded workshops, storerooms, a seminary, sanatorium, cemetery and almshouse. A column stood in the centre of the courtyard, symbolising the monastery’s importance as a place of religious service for monks and rulers. The Armenian philosopher and theologian Hovhan Vorotnetsi (1315–1398) lived and worked here and founded the educational institution that later developed into the Tatev vardapetaran.