Saint
Bartholomew the Apostle first founded a church at the site around AD 62, during the
Parthian era. The first monastery was built in the seventh century, and was later expanded in the 10th century. The monastery was damaged during the wars between the
Seljuks and the
Byzantine Empire in the 11th and 12th centuries. Following the conquest of the region by the Mongols of
Hulagu Khan, grandson of
Genghis Khan, in the middle of the 13th century, a peace agreement was signed between the Armenian Church and the
Ilkhanate, and the Christians maintained an equable situation. The monastery was restored in the second half of the 13th century, and was completely rebuilt under the leadership of Zachariah in 1330. By the 14th and 15th centuries, the Saint Stepanos Monastery was at the height of its cultural and intellectual influence, producing paintings and
illuminated manuscripts in religion, history, and philosophy. In the early 15th century, the new
Safavid dynasty protected the Armenians, but the region was at the center of the conflicts with the
Ottomans, who invaded
Western Armenia in 1513. The monastery gradually declined in the 16th century.
Abbas the Great expelled the inhabitants of the region in 1604, and the monastery was abandoned. After 1650, the Safavids reoccupied the region and the abandoned monastery was restored in the latter part of the 17th century. At the beginning of the 18th century, the region came under the expansion of the
Russian Empire.
Yerevan was conquered by the Russians in 1827, and per the
Treaty of Turkmenchay, the border between Iran and Russia was subsequently established on the Araxes. Consequently, part of the population was forcefully displaced to
Russian Armenia. The
Qajar rulers continued to protect the Armenians, and encouraged the rebuilding of the Saint Stepanos Monastery between 1819 and 1825. The monastery underwent several restorations in the 20th century. ==Gallery==