We got off the bus a few metres away from the Haghartsin Monastery so as to feel the surrounding atmosphere which was definitely fairy-like. Nature did play its role in creating an almost mysterious scenario in as much as one could see a white "castle" in the distance amidst the rainforest blooming trees and shrubbery. To our left a cave- like ensemble of stones with several khatchkars.
As we moved along the road there stood the Monastery in its full splendour, most of which owed to the colour of the stone used in its construction, which strongly contrasted with the greens and brown and certainly with the monasteries we had visited before.
I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say that the whole ensemble was impressive as well, particularly as we approached it. We soon realised it had been recently restored and whether major changes to the initial monastery ensemble were carried out we wouldn't know (hopefully not).
We started by visiting the refectory building on our left which had quite a few framed carpets, whose particularities in regards to the designs were thoroughly explained to us by Armine.
We then walked into St. Gregory's church dating back to the 10th century before having visited the Mother of God's church said to have been added in 1281, outside of which a beautiful khachkar carved by Pavgos could be seen.
Several details caught my attention namely a rather interesting sculpture depicting two men in monks' attires who are pointing at a model of a church above which is a dove with half spread wings, said to have been a relief of the donors.
Contemporaneous with the spate of the building was a walnut tree said to be 700 years old and probably planted as a source of food.
As we were heading towards the bus I felt like looking back a few times, just to confirm if my initial fairy-like feeling was still there ... and whether I had really visited it for real.
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