St. Nshan was built on the basis of another Armenian Church, Samvel Karapetyan says

Alisa Gevorgyan
“Radiolur”
30/1/2012

The Georgian Patriarchate issued a statement recently, questioning the Armenian origin of St. Nshan Church of Tbilisi, noting that the issue should be solved before the return of the church to the Armenian community can be discussed.

The Georgian side says Armenian built their church on the basis of an older Georgian Orthodox Church. They say this is proved by the second part of its name – St. Nicholas. Georgians say the worship of St Nicholas has not been common among Armenians.

In response to this assertion, expert of monuments Samvel Karapetyan pointed to a number of churches in historic Armenia that carry the name of St Nicholas. “St. Nshan was built in the place of an older church, which had also been Armenian,” he said.

Back in 1672 famous French traveler Jean Charden noted St. Nshan among the eight Armenian churches of Tbilisi, while the Georgian side has no source that would prove the Georgian origin of the church, Samvel Karapetyan said.

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