KHATCHKAR ~ ART AND SOUL ~ A VISUAL JOURNEY

By Hrair Hawk Khatcherian

Amongst the creations of Armenian artistic genius who give this nation an important place in art's universal history, the khatchkar (from khatch = cross, and kar = stone)is probably the most iconic example of this country. Khatchkars are rectangular stone plates, varying in height and usually slightly bigger than human size. The plates are always east-orientated; their west face is carved with a cross pattern; they are often placed on a podium and surmounted by a cornice. Luckily for historians, khatchkars are often carved with inscriptions, the content of which  is a prayer for the salvation of the soul of a living or deceased person, inscriptions that also allow dating them while indicating their function. Several are funerary steles placed at the eastern end of a tomb where the feet of the deceased are located, ensuring that, on judgment day, he can rise facing east, where the salvation will come from. - Patrick Donabedian, Aix-Marseille University

In English, French, and Armenian

Hrair Hawk Khatcherian (2024)