Spitakavor: the white monastery of Vayots Dzor reached by dirt track

From Yeghegnadzor, in southern Armenia, a road climbs to the village of Vernashen and, on leaving it, turns into a dirt track that scrambles six kilometres up the hillside. At the top, on a balcony over the valley, there is a small monastery of almost white stone with a wall around it. This is Spitakavor, "the whitish one", built between 1318 and 1321 by the Proshian princes, who ruled this area under the Mongols and also built Noravank, an hour from here.

Who built it

The Proshians were a family of Armenian princes who, in the 14th century, had the money and the Mongols' permission to build churches, a rare thing at the time. Eachi Proshian began the church and his son Amir Hasan finished it, and both appear portrayed on the façade: there are reliefs of princes on horseback, of the Virgin and Child and of saints, carved with a detail you do not expect in such a remote place. That is the reason for the climb.

What you see

A cruciform church with a dome, a gavit or vestibule in front, a bell tower and a wall with towers that gives the whole the air of a fortress. The stone is pale felsite, which turns golden in the afternoon sun. Inside the wall there are khachkars and, since 1983, the grave of Garegin Nzhdeh, the Armenian military leader of the early 20th century, which for many Armenians makes the site a place of memory. Around it, meadows, the Yeghegnadzor valley below and the mountains of Vayots Dzor opposite.

How to get up

The track from Vernashen is dirt and stones, with steep stretches; you need a 4x4 or, in dry weather, a high-clearance car with a good driver. You can also walk up from the village, an hour and a half uphill. There is no ticket office, no opening hours and no caretaker: the monastery is always open and almost always empty. Best from May to October; in winter the track closes with snow.

What to combine it with

It is half an hour from Yeghegnadzor, so it fits into the same day as Noravank and the Areni cave, the classic Vayots Dzor route. If you continue south, Sisian is an hour and a half away on the Goris road, with Carahunge and the Shaki waterfall on the way to Tatev.

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