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Thursday, November 24, 2011

Artik; a Beautiful City in Armenia

Artik (Azerbaijani: Ərtik, Armenian: Արթիկ, also Romanized as Art’ik) (Urdu and Persian: آرتیک) is a city located in the Shirak (marz) province of Armenia. It has a population of 14,949 people, down from the 25,100 reported in the 1989 census.

Artik has many monuments and churches. At the square there is a World War II monument. A short distance from the square are the two churches of Saint Marine built in the 5th century and Surb Gevorg built in the 7th century. Surp Gevorg is the larger of the two and had previously been turned into a storehouse under the Soviets. The first attempt to restore the church was made in early 1990s. Both churches are in partial ruins, with restoration interrupted by the collapse of the USSR. On January 6, 2006 a fund-raising campaign was announced in the city of Artik to reconstruct S. Gevorg. Near the city is also an 18th century church in a cave, and a well preserved church of Lmbatavank (Surb Stepanos) built in the 7th century standing on a hillside. The church was reconstructed between 1955-1956. During 1960 excavations, a Bronze-Age cemetery was discovered under the stones.


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