The Caucasus Heritage Watch (CHW) is closely monitoring earthmoving adjacent to the St. Yeghisha Church of Mataghis, a village in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“As of July 5, the basilica appears structurally unchanged since the 2020 war. But the proximity of earthmoving raises concern,” it said on Facebook on Monday.

According to the inscription engraved on the lintel of the southern entrance, the construction of the church took place in 1892-1898, the Artsakh Monument Watch says in its historical overview.

The inscription says: “The Church of St. Yeghisha was built by the united people of Mataghis. It was started in 1892 and was completed in 1898” (Fig. 2). During the visit of M. Barkhudaryants in 1894-1895, the church was still half-built and unconsecrated (Barkhutaryants 1895, 231).

Architectural-compositional description

The church is a three-nave basilica, built of local light brown rough and hewn stones. The dimensions of the monument are 15.07 meters long and 8.16 meters wide (Figs. 3-4). It is completely plastered inwardly. The semi-circular bema is high, has two vestries, it is vaulted, the roof is covered with earth (Fig. 5).

The entrance is from the south, three windows open from the east, two from the south and one from the west.

The condition before, during and after the war

Before the war the church was completely standing. Hot battles took place in the village of Mataghis during the Second Artsakh War and it is not known to what extent the monument was damaged. After the war, a video was spread by Azeris on social media, where it was visible how several men in military uniforms enter the church and break the icons. The video also shows that various broken objects are scattered on the floor (Cultural vandalism in St. Yeghisha Church of Mataghis – Monument Watch).