The monastery complex of Gandzasar stands high atop a green hill not far from the village of Vank. According to the legend, a number of silver mines were found on the mountain, which is why the church was named Gandzasar – “a treasure mountain”.

Today, the 13th-century monastery is still in operation. What is more, it has been the most significant church of Artsakh from the very first day of its foundation. According to the medieval historian Movses Kaghankatvatsi, the head of St John the Baptist (St Hovhannes Mkrtich) – the most significant Christian shrine– ended up in Gandzasar. In some editions of Kaghankatvatsi’s work, there is an entire chapter “On the Sacred Head of John the Baptist, and about how it was Brought to the Province of Artsakh and Deposited in the Holy See of Gandzasar…”, where he describes all the vicissitudes of the holy head in detail. The layout of the main church – erected in the name of St Hovhannes Mkrtich (or St John the Baptist) – reminds of architectural masterpieces of the ancient Armenian capital Ani – “the city of a thousand and one churches”. The church is ornamented with numerous bas-reliefs among which depicted is the figure of the founder of Gandzasar, the Prince Hasan-Jalal Dola, with a model of the church held in his hand.   

Along with the ancient bas-reliefs, a modern detail – a missile from the times of the Karabakh war, which pierced the masonry, but never exploded – sticks out from one of the outside walls of the monastery, unremoved, kept as a relic.