Gladzor University Historic-Cultural Preserve-Museum

Region

Vayots Dzor

Distance from Yerevan

125.3 km

Type

Museum

This museum, established in 1984 on the 700th anniversary of Gladzor University, is located in the historic church of Surb Hakob (St. Jacob) in Vernashen village. The exhibition is devoted to higher education, scriptural art, the unprecedented rise of various branches of science in Medieval Armenia, and the history of Gladzor University, believed by some to have been located at Tanahat (Tanadeh) Monastery, 4.8 km from here. At Gladzor, students had a rigorous syllabus, studying Theology, Mythology, Philosophy, Bibliography, Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Arithmetic, Astronomy, Chronology and Geometry. Its senior faculty included the noted Armenian theologians David Sasnetsi, Grigor, Martiros, Hovhannes, Kirakos and Kiuregh. Also of note, the outstanding miniature painters Toros Taronatsi, Avag and Momik studied and worked at the university. Gladzor was a major center of calligraphy where hundreds of manuscripts were created.