Vank Cathedral is an Armenian temple in Isfahan and which includes a museum to save and protect monuments and old manuscripts. Vank means monastery or convent in the Armenian language.
Vank Cathedral or Amenaprkich is an Armenian church in Isfahan which dates back to the reign of Abbas II of Persia. This church was the first religious building which built after settling the Armenians in the New Julfa district. The equivalent of Vank in the Armenian language is a monastery. Amenaperkic or sacred savior church refers to the name of a church in the Nakhichevan.
The Vank Cathedral consists of museum, library, printing house and office buildings with an area of 9000 square meters. The architectural style of this church is a combination of Islamic and Armenian Architecture. Vank Cathedral was built based on the plane of Armenian Church and façade of Islamic Architecture. The Armenian had built conical dome above the churches, but two large and small dome over Vank Cathedral inspired by the Islamic Architectural style. Three-story bell tower above the entrance of this cathedral and a massive clock tower on the second floor, are the bold features of this church.
The interior walls of the churches didn’t have any ornamentation before construction of the Vank Cathedral. There are fabulous paintings on the interior wall of Vank Cathedral that amaze you; these works are created by the Armenian artists of Isfahan who adorned the walls of the churches in Isfahan with subjects from the holy Gospel.
One of the interesting part of Vank Cathedral is the museum that belongs to 100 years ago. This museum consists of some small rooms on the north side of the courtyard to protect the books, old manuscripts, and historical objects, painting boards, Stucco boards, Golds, and silver. The hair strand of an 18-years old girl which was written a part of Torah by a diamond pen on it considered as the most famous object of Vank Museum.
To visit Vank Cathedral, suggest you travel to Isfahan from late March until late May. You can visit Vank Cathedral from 8:30 AM until 6:30 PM. Also, visit fee cost 300,000 IRR for foreign visitors.
You can reach there via private car or public transportation such as a bus. Ride the bus of Shohada Square- Gharazi Hospital line. The bus station located on the Hakim Nezami Street. It is a five-minute walk from the bus station to the Vank Cathedral.
