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Armenian monastery; UNESCO World Heritage site since 2008

Saint Stepanos Monastery

کلیسای سنت استپانوس

An Armenian monastery in the gorge of the Aras near Jolfa

Saint Stepanos is an Armenian monastery set in a narrow green valley above the gorge of the Aras river, about fifteen kilometres west of Jolfa in East Azerbaijan. On the far bank of the river lies the Nakhchivan exclave of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the monastery’s domed church rises from the trees with the bare red mountains of the border all around it.

The monastery is dedicated to Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr, and Armenian tradition gives it a very early foundation. The buildings seen today, however, largely date from rebuilding in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, after earlier damage. For long periods it was a centre of learning and manuscript painting for the Armenians of the region.

The church is built of finely cut stone in the traditional Armenian form, a cross plan crowned by a tall drum and pointed conical dome. Its walls are carved with crosses, saints, angels and bands of interlaced ornament, and the high bell tower and fortified enclosure walls give the whole monastery the look of a small citadel. Inside, there are remains of painted decoration.

In 2008 UNESCO inscribed Saint Stepanos, together with the monastery of Saint Thaddeus (Qara Kelisa) and the chapel of Dzordzor, as the Armenian Monastic Ensembles of Iran, recognising them as witnesses to Armenian culture and its exchanges with Persian and other traditions. It remains a place of Armenian pilgrimage and is one of the most beautiful Christian sites in the country.

Saint Stepanos Monastery through time

Iranian history
  1. Elam and the first cities4000 BCE
  2. The Medes850 BCE
  3. The Achaemenids550 BCE
  4. Seleucids and Parthians330 BCE
  5. The Sasanians224
  6. The Arab conquest and the Persian revival636
  7. Seljuks, Mongols and Ilkhanids1040
  8. The Timurids1370
  9. The Safavids1501
  10. Afsharids, Zands and Qajars1736
  11. The Pahlavi century and after1925

1925–2026

The Pahlavi century and afterدوران پهلوی و پس از آن

Two Pahlavi shahs built railways, universities and a centralised state, while poets, novelists and film-makers created a new Persian culture. The era ended with the revolution of 1979.

  • 2008 Inscribed by UNESCO among the Armenian Monastic Ensembles of Iran

More in East Azerbaijanآذربایجان شرقی

East Azerbaijan

Stories from the regionداستان‌ها

A long-necked saz with a red bowl and saffron frets, the instrument of the ashiq minstrels, before the rows of brick domes and arches of the Tabriz bazaar, with Mount Sahand and a saffron sun on turquoise behind.

Turkic speech, an ancient Iranian province, and a nation of their own to the north

Azerbaijanis

Iran’s Azerbaijanis, who often call themselves *Türk*, speak a Turkic language in a land named after an Iranian satrap. North of the Aras, the Republic of Azerbaijan is a separate nation that defines itself.

A sheaf of wheat tied with a red band above a round loaf broken into equal pieces on a pale cloth, against a white halo on clay

A sixth-century movement for sharing

Mazdakism

Under King Kavad I, a priest called Mazdak preached that goods should be shared and the world made just. His movement was crushed, but its memory lasted for centuries.

A Persian tar with its double-bowled saffron body, two white skin faces and long fretted neck, angled across a red halo on turquoise

The long-necked lute of the radif

Tar

With its double-bowled mulberry body and skin face, the tar was the instrument on which the radif itself was codified. In the Caucasus a related tar has grown into a tradition of its own.