Surb Arakelots Monastery near Mush, then and now

The Surb Arakelots (Holy Apostles) Monastery, or Arakelotsvank, stood in Taron, near the town of Mush. According to tradition, it was founded by Gregory the Illuminator in the 4th century to keep the relics of the Apostles Peter and Paul; other accounts date it to the 6th–11th centuries.

Before the Armenian Genocide of 1915, the monastery was one of the notable centres of Armenian culture and education in Western Armenia, with a school and a cemetery rich in khachkars. During and after the Genocide it was abandoned and destroyed.

The upper photograph shows the monastery in the early 20th century, walled and with conical domes. The lower one shows its state in 2010: the ruins of the main church and a chapel.