The monastic complex of the Forty Children

It lies in the north-western part of the village of Dsegh in Lori Province. The terrain is rugged, and the site can be reached only on footpaths, either from Dsegh or from the Zoraget community.

The name honours early Christian martyrs: according to tradition, forty Armenian youths were executed for remaining faithful to Christianity, and their remains were burned and thrown into a river. Persecuted Christians from various regions later settled in the Debed Gorge and built a holy site to keep their memory alive.

The monastery dates from the 13th century and consists of a church, a bell tower, shelters, auxiliary structures, a cemetery and khachkars (cross-stones). It is only partially preserved and is now semi-ruined; inscriptions show that parts of it were renovated in the late 13th century.

The monastery was built of the region’s pink polished felsite, with basalt pillars, and the church is a domed hall with a rectangular plan. Its walls, vaults and dome-bearing arches are eroded and the dome has not survived, but the walls still carry many medieval inscriptions, cross reliefs and intricately carved khachkars.

Its two-storey vestries, vertically elongated and with semi-circular niches, are a technically complex design rarely used in Armenian monastic architecture. Numbered carved stones on the site were probably meant for a restoration that never took place.