Monastery of Santo Stefano
The monastery of St. Stephen is located in the Ghazal Vānk district near the city of Jolfā and the Aras river (eastern Azerbāijān region) and was built in the ninth century and later, in the Safavid era, was restored and rebuilt.
The monastery building, situated in a gorge and in the midst of the luxuriant nature of the border area, is a synthesis of the Urartian, Parthian, and Byzantine architecture and later became known for the Armenian architectural style.
The cylindrical and domed building (16 sides) of the monastery, built with pink, red and white stones, is surrounded by a stone wall which is a high bastion with seven watch towers and five stone cylinders, similar to the solid fortresses of the Sasanian period and the first centuries of Islam.
The portal of this bastion has a wooden and pressed iron door, in both lower parts and on the arch the stone was delicately carved and stands out a bas-relief of the Virgin Mary and of the baby Jesus in the front of the arch.
On the external walls of the church there are beautiful bas-reliefs depicting the stoning of Saint Stephen, the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ.
This religious building has three main and obvious constructions:
1-The main prayer room with two carved wooden entrances and an interior space in the shape of a cross that consists of three parts, theIwan, the prayer hall and the pulpit. The basements, the arches, the half columns, the processing a muqarnas and the decoration of the arch of the carved portal, the bas-reliefs depicting the apostles, the saints and the angels around, the religious paintings etc. are some examples of the internal beauty of the main court.
2 - the tower of the bell tower located on theIwan on two floors joined to the wall of the church and endowed with an eight-sided pyramid-shaped dome resting on eight cylindrical columns in red stone with magnificent capitals; this tower has decorations such as: relief images depicting the angel, the cross, the bergamot, the star, the flower with eight petals etc ...
3-Ojāgh-e Dāniāl which is a room joined to the northern wall of the church, 6 meters wide and almost 20 long which is divided into three equal parts: 1-ojāgh-e Dāniāl which is divided from the room by the wall. 2-the meeting room in the center. 3 - the place of baptism at the end of the hall.
The religious school or cloister is located next to the monastery and in its four sides there were rooms whose upper floor was used for the rest of travelers and pilgrims, while the lower one was used as a stable for quadrupeds.
This church, which after the Qara church is the second most important of Iran's Armenians, along with the latter and the Zavar church, has been included in the list of UNESCO's cultural heritage.
