Surb Akop church (Gladzor University)

Above Yeghegnadzor, the mountains rise into a string of villages—Gladzor (formerly Ortakend until 1947) and Vernashen (once Bashkend)—which together rival the town in population and exceed it in size. In Vernashen stands the Church of Surb Hakob, a modest stone basilica built in the traditional chest-like style typical of Armenian churches erected by repatriates from Isfahan.

Since 1984, the church has housed a small museum dedicated to Gladzor University, established nearby in 1282. Its founding marked the height of the Orbelyan dynasty, who had arrived in Vayots Dzor in 1184 after falling out of favor in the political intrigues of the Georgian court, where their ancestors once held high positions. In the decades that followed, the Orbelyans expanded their power throughout Syunik by allying with Mongol rulers—particularly those stationed in Tabriz, the regional seat of the Golden Horde in the South Caucasus. By avoiding rebellion and supplying troops for campaigns against Turkic and Arab forces, they turned Syunik into the most stable region of the Caucasus. It was in this environment that institutions like the Gladzor University and the global silk fair in Julfa flourished.

Gladzor’s scholars left a mark on Armenian intellectual life that endured beyond the collapse of its medieval statehood. Figures like historian Stepanos Orbelyan and miniaturist Taros Taronatsi emerged from its halls. Yet none is more relevant today than the architect Momik—both student and teacher at Gladzor—whose works remain among Armenia’s most treasured monuments.

The curriculum at Gladzor was split into “internal” disciplines—primarily theology and philosophy—and “external” sciences, which followed the classical structure of the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, logic) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music). After seven to eight years of study, students submitted a dissertation in one of the latter fields. Every scholar, regardless of their final specialization, was expected to master both religious and secular subjects. But academic rigor alone could not sustain Gladzor. Its rector, Nerses Mshetsi, once named “peace and remote silence” as essential for university life—an increasingly rare commodity in war-torn Armenia. In 1338, with the death of Gladzor’s second rector and Nerses’s pupil, Yesai Nighetsi, the university came to a quiet end. Its intellectual legacy continued, however, in institutions like the Tatev University.

oday, two churches remain on the former university grounds: Surb Nshan (13th century) and Surb Stepanos, built in 1279. The latter stood at the center of the complex, from which other structures radiated—now reduced to faint traces in the soil. In time for the university’s 700th anniversary, the chapel was converted into a museum.

The museum’s displays are modest. They include photographs of medieval architectural sites—some now destroyed in neighboring Nakhichevan—portraits of professors, and replicas of manuscripts and documents. While these reproductions pale next to the originals held at the Matenadaran in Yerevan, they still offer a glimpse into a once-thriving center of learning.

In front of the church stand seven modern stone stelae, each representing one of the core subjects taught at the university: grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music theory.