Bana cathedral : Ask Biography

Home | Religious Building | Bana cathedral

Bana or Banak ( , bɑnɑ) ( , bɑnɑk), is a ruined medieval Christian cathedral in the Erzurum Province, northeastern Turkey, in what had formerly been a historical Georgian marchland known to Armenians as Tayk and to Georgians as Tao. The history of the Tao region goes back to 3000 BC, i.e. the Bronze Age known as the Kura-Araxes culture. In the 1st millennium BC, the area was predominantly inhabited by various proto-Georgian people which was divided into the kingdoms of Diaokhi, Colchis and Iberia.

In 302 BC, this territory was absorbed into the ancient Kingdom of Iberia under king Pharnavaz I.

However afterwards it formed part of the Kingdom of Armenia.

Contested between Iberia and Armenia throughout the following centuries, the region was invaded and completely destroyed by the Arabs in the 7th century AD.

Bana is a large tetraconch design, surrounded by a near-rotunda polygonal ambulatory and marked with a cylindrical drum. After the area repassed on to Georgian control in the 8th century (as part of Tao-Klarjeti), the church was reconstructed by the Georgian ruler Adarnase IV at some point between 881 and 923, and emerged in written records in the 11th century Georgian chronicles. Henceforth, it was used as a royal cathedral by the Georgian Bagratid dynasty until the Ottoman conquest of the area in the 16th century. The former cathedral was converted into a fortress by the Ottoman army during the Crimean War in the 1850s and was almost completely ruined during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78.

Bana cathedral

Home | Religious Building | Bana cathedral

Bana cathedral Video

Latest News : Bana cathedral : Tweet this RSS