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Photo: Liveon001 © Travis K. Witt, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The church was built in the mid-7th century and has been preserved without significant alterations. It features a single reddish clay tile domed roof (hence the name Tsiranavor, which means "reddish"). There are ancient khachkars around the church, and a stone gates with preserved engravings. It is a small church but quite interesting.
Karmravor, also known as the Church of Holy Mother of God is a 7th-century Armenian Apostolic church in the town of Ashtarak in the Aragatsotn Province.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
Perch Proshyan, the writer of the second half of the 19th century, was born here. There is a funny milepost at the entrance showing distances to the Hermitage, the Louvre and other world-famous museums.
Tsiranavor meaning "apricotish" is a small church built between the 13th to 14th centuries. Its roof has since collapsed, but walls remain. It also doesn't look very appealing and can be skipped.
Spitakavor meaning "whitish" is a triple-aisled basilica built in the 5th-6th centuries (most likely between 540-557). The front façade is whitewashed and has a lengthy inscription. Walls remain but the roof has since collapsed. Note: Some confusion about the name of the churches of Spitakavor and Tsiranavor has seemed to have occurred due to the misplacement of the Russian markers located inside the two structures. The ruins aren't impressive: if you aren't an expert, you can skip it.
The reddish stone arch bridge was built in 1664 as part of the old road to Yerevan. It features two equal sized smaller pointed arches on either side of a larger central pointed arch.
Saint Sarkis Church of Ashtarak
S. Sarkis was built in the 19th century supposedly upon older foundations. It looks to be a new church because of extensive restoration work, but a small number of the older original stones carved with decorative relief and inscriptions (replaced with new stone and now sitting next to the foundation of the building) show its age to be much older. It offers a fine view to the three churches of Tsiranavor, Spitakavor, and Karmravor.
The center life in this quiet town. There is a monument to Catholicos Nerses of Ashtarak, a taxi rank and a pair of nice pre-revolutionary buildings.