Holy All Savior Ghazanchetsots Church

Shushi region, c. Shushi

Holy All Savior Ghazanchetsots Church of Shushi is located in the central part of the city, 1378 m above the Karkar valley. Thanks to its elevated location, it dominates the entire plateau.

 The complex of the Holy All Savior Ghazanchetsots Church is the architectural dominant of Shushi city. The church and the belfry are built of finely hewn white limestone.

The Holy All Savior has impressive dimensions (34.7x27x42 m) and is one of the largest Armenian churches. The four facades of the church with a rectangular plan have externally accentuated apses, which convey cruciformity to the structure.

There are bas-reliefs on the pediments. In the center of the prayer hall, the dome rises on four thick pillars. With its general volumetric solution, the Holy All Savior received a cross-domed composition reminiscent of the Mother Cathedral of Etchmiadzin. The church has three portals that open to the west, south and north. In front of them three-arched semicircle, inwardly and externally multi-faceted nartex-vestibules are built. Originally, there used to be five arches, but the two lateral ones were later lined and closed (perhaps, due to functional purposes). Their existence is one of the features of the Holy All Savior Church of Shushi. Small cruciform windows are opened at the top of the vestibules. The upper parts of the doors are decorated with bas-reliefs included within the frame.

The external decoration of the church is represented by numerous decorative zones, dimensional portals, window edgings, ornamented arches of doors and windows. Wide and high windows convey upsurge to the volume and abundance of light to the interior.

The dome of the church is also slender, the drum facets are designed in vertical symmetries, with inlined window-niches. The drum is crowned with a fan-shaped spire. There are numerous Armenian inscriptions on the walls of the church.

A three-storey belfry is located a little far away, on the western side of the Holy All Savior Ghazanchetsots Church. The cube-shaped volume of the first floor is accentuated by an east-west axis with a transversal arched opening. In the corners of the upper part of this floor there are four statues of angels blowing trumpets. The faceted walls of the second and third floor of the belfry are joined by wide arched openings. The third floor of the belfry, as in case of a church, is crowned with a fan-shaped spire. The embellished belt of the belfry is performed with an outstanding craftsmanship. We learn from the extensive inscription on the eastern wall of the building that it was built by Abraham Khandamiryants from Shushi in memory of Gabriel Hovsepyan-Batiryants, who originated from Ghazan and pilgrim Mkrtich Margaryan-Khandamiryants, his wife Balasan, sons of Arup and Stepan, as well as all residents of Ghazan. The date of construction is mentioned at the upper part of the southern wall of the belfry: the summer of 1858 (Мкртчян, 1989, 184). It is not difficult to notice from this inscription that the belfry had been built earlier than the temple of Holy All Savior (1868) and that the old church mentioned by Mesrop Taghiadyan, built in the 18th century, used to stand here instead of the current Holy All Savior Ghazanchetsots Church. This is the reason why the belfry stands separately.

The church was closed during the Soviet era. In the 1940s, it was used as a grain warehouse. During the 1950s, the statues of angels at the church entrance were damaged and the dome was destroyed. The Azeris living in the city tore down the hewn roof slabs and the stones of the upper row of the facades and built houses.

In the late 1960s, the church was turned into a parking lot for agricultural machinery. A decade later, barbaric and deliberate explosions and fires were organized inside the church, the epigraphs were effaced. All this has always provoked the protest of the Armenian population. In 1982, the restoration of the Church of All Savior began, which was not going smoothly. According to the restoration master Volodya Babayan, the high leadership of Azerbaijan was hindering the construction of the dome. They realized that after that the church would become dominant not only over Shushi but also in the vast Karkar valley. 

During the first Artsakh war, the Azerbaijanis converted the church into a military depot. After the liberation of Shushi, the restoration of the destroyed dome and the whole complex was completed in 1998. 

On October 8, 2020, the Holy All Savior Ghazanchetsots Church was targeted by the enemy: it was rocketed, the dome of the church and the roofs of the cross-wings were damaged. The prayer hall of the church was completely filled with construction debris. Today, after passing to the Azerbaijani side, the waste was cleared. The current state of the church is unknown.