Shatin Monastery

"The main information about Shativan Monastery has reached us again through the historian Stepanos Orbelian. The monastery complex was built in the 10th century, but it has been reconstructed multiple times and lost its original appearance. The complex was surrounded by walls, which are now dilapidated. Inside the walls is the church building, where a secret passage opens in the wall of the vestry, and frescoes are preserved on the wall of the altar. Numerous ruins of structures, khachkars (cross-stones) from the 10th to 14th centuries, inscriptions, and their fragments remain in the church territory. The Shativan Monastery played an important role not only in religious life but also in educational, scientific, and artisanal fields during the Middle Ages. Evidence of its economic power includes production facilities (oil mill, water mill) and numerous auxiliary buildings, a canal, and a bridge."