Գնդեվանք Gndevank

Gndevank (Armenian: Գնդեվանք, meaning Round cathedral) is a 10th-13th century Armenian monastery in the Vayots Dzor Province of Armenia, along the road to Jermuk. The ancient monastery complex is a thousand years old, and in good condition. The monastery complex is surrounded by fort-like walls. Once inside one of the entrances or walls, you see the entire complex. There is a very nice church, with some great carved stones all around it, a large courtyard partly shaded by a large walnut tree, and the fort like walls, which have many chambers to explore. If you enter certain rooms you can just crawl into lower chamber after chamber and in this fashion go about 3 stories underground, so bring a flashlight! The excavations are incomplete, so like many monasteries there is the story that there is a tunnel leading to the river.
G’ndevank is situated not far from the Jermuk spa, on the left side of the River Arpa valley, in a beautiful landscape. The church of St. Stepanos, the principle building, constructed in 936, is in its general plan a reproduction of the Armenian cruciform and central cupola’d church; it only lacks a pair of sacristies on the west face.
The monastery is surrounded with high walls. in the southern and western parts of the precincts are rows of domestic buildings for the use of the monks. The restoration works on the church and the jhamatun, damaged by earthquakes, were undertaken between 1965 and 1969
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