Perched on a gentle elevation, as is customary with many Armenian monasteries, stands Goshavank — the Monastery of Gosh — a place of great historical and spiritual resonance. This architectural gem, once known as Nor Getik, was founded by Mkhitar Gosh, a prominent medieval philosopher, theologian, jurist, clergyman, and public figure. The authoritative Encyclopedia Americana lists him among the foremost representatives of the Armenian Renaissance. His epithet “Gosh,” meaning “sparse-bearded” in Armenian, belied the magnitude of his influence. Revered among Armenia’s political elite, Gosh played a pivotal role in the spiritual and civic life of his time, even serving as a participant in major ecclesiastical councils.
Initially, Mkhitar Gosh served in the Getik Monastery, situated some 30 kilometers from Goshavank. It was there that he composed his most influential work — the Code of Laws, a legal document comprising 250 articles, considered Armenia’s first secular legal codex.
In the latter half of the 12th century, the Muslim emirs of Ganja, where Gosh resided, permitted the Armenian Christian community to operate its own judicial system. However, in the absence of a structured legal framework, disputes often reverted to Muslim courts, leading to frequent injustices. Gosh responded by composing a revolutionary legal treatise, later known as the Judicial Code of Mkhitar Gosh, a pioneering secular document in Armenian legal history.
While legal texts existed before, Gosh’s Code was the first to raise environmental concerns, dedicating eleven articles to the protection of nature. It imposed fines and penalties for offenses such as cutting down blossoming trees or slaughtering pregnant livestock. Moreover, he was the first Armenian legal thinker to address women’s rights. At a time when women left a marriage empty-handed, Mkhitar Gosh established a precedent for the equitable division of marital property between former spouses.
Following Gosh’s death in 1213, the monastery began to be known as Goshavank — “the Monastery of Gosh” — in his honor.
Before its destruction in a devastating earthquake in 1185, the original Getik monastery had housed a thriving intellectual community of nearly 200 clergymen, nurtured by Gosh’s dedication to education. Close to the influential Zakarian princes, Gosh appealed to them for support in constructing a new monastic complex.
Prince Ivane Zakarian, together with Prince Vahktang, commissioned the construction of New Getik. The foundation of the main church, Surb Astvatsatsin (Holy Mother of God), was laid in 1191. Its walls still bear numerous inscriptions that speak to its long and storied past. Over the course of a century, the monastery grew to encompass four churches, a scriptorium, and a refectory.
Although the refectory has lost its roof, its stone walls remain, alongside a series of waist-high columns with square openings. These once supported massive wooden tables where monks would take their meals. The stone legs were crafted to withstand decay, a deliberate choice, as Father Sedrak explained — unlike the now-lost wooden tabletops.
According to inscriptions and records by the historian Kirakos Gandzaketsi, the principal architect was a master known as Mkhitar “Hyusn” (meaning “Graceful”), aided by fellow builders Grigor and Zakios.
Among the monastery’s many treasures, a 13th-century “lacework” khachkar (cross-stone) stands out as an exceptional masterpiece of Armenian sacred sculpture. With a filigree-like delicacy far ahead of its time, the khachkar bears an inscription noting that it was commissioned by Sargis Vardapet in memory of his parents.
Goshavank also became home to a university — the first in Armenia to offer the study of law as an independent discipline. The monastery evolved into a major center of religious thought, education, and culture during the Middle Ages. Among those who studied and taught here were celebrated Armenian scholars such as Vanakan Vardapet and Kirakos Gandzaketsi.
Mkhitar Gosh lived until 1213. In accordance with his final wishes, he was laid to rest in the Resurrection Crypt, which he himself had founded on a hill in the southwestern part of the complex — so that, as he poetically wished, “the eyes of his soul could forever watch over the monastery he had created.”
