Overview

The tour starts at  10:00 
The tour lasts 4-5 hours
Itinerary: March 15 - November 15

We offer you a group tour to Hripshime and Gayane churches as well as Mother Cathedral. St. Hripsime church is the one of the famous ecclesiastical buildings in the city of Echmiadzin. This is the developed and perfect example of cross-cupola churches in Armenia. Not far from the Echmiadzin Cathedral against the background of white peaks of Ararat one can see the silhouette of the cupola of St. Gayane church. According to the legend this church was constructed over the tomb of Virgin Gayane, who was martyred for preaching Christianity. 

According to the legend Mother Cathedral of St. Echmiadzin was built in the place where apparition of Jesus Christ was seen to Grigory the Illuminator in the dream.

Here we will visit the Museum "Treasures of Echmiadzin" that is situated in the southeast section of the Cathedral. Unique holy relics and religious art are now housed in the museum. Among the many treasures are: the Holy Lance (Geghard) which pierced the side of Christ, housed in a silver reliquary; the relics of Noah's Ark in a reliquary that was created in 1698 and other valuable pieces of art. According to the history, the relic of Noah's Ark, was given to Patriarch St. Hakob (Jacob) of Mts'bna in the fourth century, as he desired to climb the peak of Mount Ararat to find Noah's Ark. After ascending the mountain, he fell asleep through the influence of God, and the angel of the Lord placed the reliquary of the Ark under his head. In a dream, the angel instructs St. Hakob to awaken, take the relic, and descend from the mountain. I

Then we will continue our tour to Zvartnots Cathedral.  Zvartnots Cathedral - is an Armenian Cathedral built in the 7th century that could survive only till the 10th century. 

After finishing the tour we will be back to Yerevan on the second half of the day.