KOBAYR MONASTERY

Kobayr (Քոբայր) is a medieval Armenian monastery. Located near the city of Tumanyan, Lori region of Armenia.

The monastery of Kobayr was founded at the end of the 11th century by princesses from the Armenian family of Kyurikyans, in whose hands it continued to remain throughout the 12th century, probably at the beginning of the 13th. The monks of the monastery took an active part in the life of the Armenian church, so at the end of the 12th century there were disputes within the Armenian church about the legality of robes and other church accessories. The monks of Kobayr also took part in the dispute, as Archbishop of Tarsus Nerses Lambronatsi said in his letter to the King of Cilician Armenia Levon II, complaining that the monks of Ani, Akhtala and Kobaira criticized him.

By the mid-fifties of the XIII century, the male line of the Kyurikyan family was interrupted, but, apparently, even before that, Kobayr became the family monastery of the older branch of the Zakharids. According to the information that has come down to us, in 1261 the Mongols killed Zakharia, the eldest son of Shahanshah, the latter, unable to bear the news of his son’s death, died. Shahanshah was buried in Kobayr. Given that Shahanshah was born in 1197, it is likely that the monastery passed to the Zakharids between 1220 and 1261. In view of the fact that Shahanshah, unlike his father, amirspasalar Zacharias, belonged not to the Armenian religion, but to the Chalcedonian one, the monastery, passing from the Kyurikyans to the Zakharids, was reorganized from Armenian to Armenian-Chalcedonian.

From 1276 to 1282, on the initiative of the local monk Gregory, outbuildings were erected in the monastery, and the altar was decorated with frescoes. In 1279, by order of the Zakharids, a bell tower was built, which later became their family tomb. Some time later, having forgotten the monastery, the Chalcedonian Armenians leave it. Kobayr, remaining empty for several centuries, having returned to the bosom of the Armenian Apostolic Church, reopened its doors in the 17th-18th centuries.

In 1971, the frescoes of the monastery were restored by Soviet scientists and restorers.
The monastery is currently undergoing renovation funded by the government of Armenia with the assistance of the government of Italy.