Day tour Armenia – Saghmosavank monastic complex, Lori berd, Stepanavan Dendropark

The Saghmosavank “monastery of the Psalms” is a 13th-century Armenian monastic complex located in the village of Saghmosavan in the Aragatsotn Province of Armenia. Like the Hovhannavank monastery which is five kilometers south, Saghmosavank is situated atop the precipitous gorge carved by the Kasagh river. Their silhouettes dominate the adjacent villages and rise sharp against the background of the mountains crowned by Mount Aragats. The main structures of the monasteries erected by Prince Vache Vachutyan—the Church of Zion in Saghmosavank (1215) and the Church of Karapet in Hovhannavank (1216-1221)—belong to the same type of cross-winged domed structure with two-floor annexes in all the corners of the building. Subcupola space predominates in the interiors of both churches, which is reflected in the exterior shapes of these structures.

Lori Berd is a village in the Lori Province of Armenia, just east of Stepanavan. It is the site of the medieval fortress “Lori Berd” located on a peninsula along the deep gorge cut by the Dzoraget and Tashir rivers. Lori Berd is situated at an altitude of 1379 m.

Officially Sochut Dendropark named after Edmund Leonowicz, commonly knowns as Stepanavan Dendropark is an arboretum located near the Gyulagarak village, Lori Province, Armenia. Located around 85 km north of the capital Yerevan, the park was founded in 1931 by Polish engineer-forester Edmund Leonowicz. The arboretum is 35 ha in total of which 17.5 ha consist of natural forest and 15 ha of ornamental trees.