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Located in modern-day eastern Turkey, Surp Amenap’rkitch, or the Church of the Holy Savior, is one of the few structures still standing at Ani from the prosperous Armenian Bagratid period in the tenth and eleventh centuries A.D. (...)

Located in modern-day eastern Turkey, Surp Amenap’rkitch, or the Church of the Holy Savior, is one of the few structures still standing at Ani from the prosperous Armenian Bagratid period in the tenth and eleventh centuries A.D. Situated at the heart of the archaeological zone of Ani, Surp Amenap’rkitch was completed in 1035 by Prince Abulgharib Pahlavuni in order to be a reliquary for a piece of the True Cross. It is considered especially important by historians of architecture and religion and is often cited as a particularly noteworthy example of the origins of ecclesiastical architecture in Armenia.

The architecture of the church is geometrically sophisticated, innovative, and well executed. Many of the exterior panels were decorative and surviving sections contain Armenian script that reveals details of the history of the church and the Ani settlement.

Archaeological work was conducted in Ani by the Imperial Academy of Science in Saint Petersburg during the occupation of the region by the Russian Empire at the end of the nineteenth century. Preceding World War I, the Imperial Academy repaired a large vertical crack in the church, most likely caused by seismic events. However, due to the war, research and further work were abandoned. In 1930 lightning hit the church, splitting it in half, with one side collapsing and the other left standing.

Since the church is currently split in half, it is inherently unstable. It stands today in an extremely fragile and compromised state and could be lost to total collapse in the very near future. Vandalism has also occurred through the removal of stones from the lower portions of the structure, which contributes to the weakened state of the church.