Kınalıada - Surp Krikor Lusavoriç, Armenian Gregorian Church

The Armenian Gregorian church is on Narçiçeğı Sokağı, on the third block in from the shore road. This was the first and only Armenian Gregorian church built on the islands. The church was founded in 1857 and is dedicated to Surp Krikor Lusavoriç, St. Gregory the Illuminator. The present church is the result of a complete reconstruction in 1988.

The altar curtain was taken from the Armenian church of St. Auxent in Trabzon. Behind the altar there is a painting of the Virgin and Christ Child. The altar is flanked by two paintings, the one on the left depicting St. Gregory the Illuminator, founder of the Armenian Gregorian Church, while the one on the right shows St. Nerses, patriarch of the Gregorian Armenian Church in the mid-fourth century. The side altar on the right is dedicated to St. Gregory, who is shown holding a model of the cathedral that he built at Etchmiadzin in Armenia. On the side walls of the nave there are panels containing attractive stone carvings in the medieval Armenian style. One of the panels commemorates the great Armenian composer Gomidas, who had a summer home on Kınalı during the years 1909-13.

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