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ARMENIAN MONASTERIES IN IRAN ADDED TO UNESCO’S WORLD HERITAGE LIST |
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TERHAN, 9 July 2008 (UNIC)-- UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has added Iran’s fortified Armenian monasteries on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The Armenian Monastic Ensembles in Iran, in the north-west of the country, consists of three monastic ensembles of the Armenian Christian faith: St Thaddeus and St Stepanos and the Chapel of Dzordzor. These edifices - the oldest of which, St Thaddeus, dates back to the 7th century – are examples of outstanding universal value of the Armenian architectural and decorative traditions. They bear testimony to very important interchanges with the other regional cultures, in particular the Byzantine, Orthodox and Persian. Situated on the south-eastern fringe of the main zone of the Armenian cultural space, the monasteries constituted a major centre for the dissemination of that culture into Azerbaijan and Persia. They are the last regional remains of this culture that are still in a satisfactory state of integrity and authenticity. Further, as places of pilgrimage, the monastic ensembles are living witnesses of Armenian religious traditions through the centuries. This is the ninth Iranian property to be inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List since 1979. The other eight World Heritage properties in Iran are Chogha Zanbil (1979), Persepolis (1979), Meidan Emam in Esfahan (1979), Takt-e-Soleyman (2003), Pasargardae (2004), Bam and its Cultural Landscape (2004), Soltaniyeh (2005), and Bisotun (2006). The UNESCO World Heritage Committee, meeting now for its 32nd session in Quebec, Canada, is inscribing new properties on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. For photographs and video footage, the following sites can be accessed: For photographs: www.unesco.org/en/whc/photos |
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