The monastery of Saint David of Abrank‘ [Abrenk, Üçpınar], named for the closest village, but also known as the Dzagk‘ar [Büklümdere] or Got‘er [Kötür, Bağpınar] monastery, after the names of two other local communities, stands on the northern slope of the Mount of the Cross, Khatch Ler [Höbek] in the region of Terjan [Mamakhatun, Tercan ], on the left of the western branch of the Euphrates, at 39° 39’ N and 40° 17’ E, and at an altitude of 2,360 m.
The monastery is composed of a lower and an upper convent. Originally Saint David of Abrank‘ was a martyrium, said to have been founded by Saint Gregory the Illuminator, who was responsible for the conversion of the Kingdom of Armenia to Christianity at the start of the 4th century. A later monastery was originally dedicated to this saint, cited in 1488 under the name Saint Gregory of Abrank‘. It was subsequently known by the name of Saint David, said “of Dwin”, a famous Persian saint of the Armenian Church, who died in 693 in the Arab persecutions. His name was long associated with that of the Illuminator. The new name was often reserved for the upper convent, which, owing probably to a transfer of relics, was believed to be the saint’s final tomb. The Abrank‘ monastery was the preserve of, and in any event a place venerated by local Armenian nobles, in particular the ecclesiastical or civil lords of the Armenian principality of Erznga [Erzincan], which, with some lapses, lasted until the 16th century in a succession of compromises and clashes with the Seljuk, Mongol or Turkmen powers. Local inscriptions place us in the presence of the young Gregory (Krikores), deceased in 1171, of the monk Sahag, cited together with baron Constantine (Gosdantianos), his brother, and their sister, Katramité in 1175, the monk John (Hohanès) in 1194, the well-known archbishop, Serge (Sarkis) of Erznga, baron John (Baron Hohannès) his son and sultan Kay-Khusraw III in 1274-1275. Later the church of Saint David would be one of the region’s monuments renovated by the monk and doctor Malachia of Terjan (Maghak‘ia Terjantsi, 1490 ?-1545) between 1521 and 1535.
According to a document from 1691, the monastery of Abrank was the seat of the archbishop of Terjan; in the 18th century it was part of a network of convents subordinated to the monastery of the Holy Precursor (John the Baptist) of Moush (n° 53), a relation mediated by the convent of the Holy Precursor of Këghi (see n° 60). A church dedicated to the saint existed at the time in the lower convent. A full-scale renovation of the monastery of Abrank‘ was undertaken in the 19th century by the prior, Mgrditch Ardzrunian (1849-1853), a member of the congregation of Saint John of Jerusalem, and by the monk-architect Ep‘rem, who later served as prior and diocesan primate from 1859 to 1893. We are indebted to them in particular for the construction of a new church dedicated to the Holy Precursor adjoining the primitive martyrium of the lower convent and surrounded by a new wall and outbuildings. The work was undertaken after an agreement signed by the representatives of the 38 local communities and a second convent of the diocese, on 24 November 1849, to devote the diocesan revenues to the undertaking. At the beginning of the 20th century, the monastery was entrusted to the care of brother Asdur Der Harutunian; at that time it housed a failing school, which the diocesan assembly decided to take in hand in 1910.
The lower convent of the Abrank‘ monastery contains the church of the Holy Precursor, a cruciform building measuring 17 × 12.2 m, within a rectangular enclosure with four free-standing columns, a drum and cupola, built between 1851 and 1873 on the site of an earlier church, by primates Mgrditch and Ep‘rem; the primitive martyrium measured 6.2 × 3.9 m and adjoined the new construction; a walled enclosure measuring 69 × 35 m, along the north and west sides of which stand the prelacy, dwellings, the bursar’s office and other buildings; a fountain and a pond. The left-hand absidiole of the church holds the tomb of primate Ep‘rem, its principal builder. The upper convent comprises the Saint David church, which is certainly a funeral chapel, measuring 7.4 × 5.5 m, renovated in the 12th century, and a cemetery with some exceptional cross-stones – two of which are some 5 meters tall – bearing the dates 1171, 1175, 1194 and 1277. In 1274-1275, the archbishop of Erznga, Serge, Hohannès his son and the Seljuk Kay-Khursaw III added their own inscriptions, in Armenian and Arabic, to that of the large 1175 stele. The monastery owned other lands and woods as well.
Lower Convent, plan (G. Brucchaus)
Confiscated and then abandoned after the Great War, the Abrank‘ monastery was partially laid waste. Large portions of the east, south and west walls of the lower convent enclosure disappeared and the buildings collapsed. Although damaged, the church of the Holy Precursor still stands, but the tomb of its builder has disappeared. Gone too are the inscriptions on the church’s outside portal and tympanum, though the latter could still be seen in 1988. The upper convent church of Saint David was desecrated and has deteriorated a great deal since the 1980s. In the early 1980s, one top corner of the 1277 stele was broken off and the stone pulled down. Blows to the main inscriptions on the two giant steles of 1175 and 1194 have left deep gouges.
Van Loo, 1991, 310-317. Thierry, 2005, 53-60. Bruchhaus, 2010, 228-249.