28 -ag. 2012- Iran to present Vank Cathedral file to UNESCO

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee is to assess Iran’s Vank Cathedral located in the country’s historical city of Isfahan for a possible inscription on the World Heritage list.


The historical records of the church has been prepared by cultural heritage experts and compiled in a file to be delivered to UNESCO world heritage for assessing in its 2013 session, said the Manager of Iranian Historical Churches' Office Sherli Avadeyan.

While the experts, during their last phase of collecting data, are attempting to complete the church’s renovation history, they think the site will be inscribed on the UNESCO world heritage list in 2013, Avadeyan noted.

Vank Cathedral which is also known as Amenapergich and The Church of the Saintly Sisters, was one of the first churches established in the city's Jolfa district in Isfahan by Armenian immigrants who were settled by Shah Abbas I after the Ottoman War in 1603-1605.

Vank, which means ‘monastery’ or ‘convent’ in the Armenian language, is an ancient cathedral that dates back to Safavid era.

Begun in 1606, the structure was completed with major alterations to design between 1655 and 1664.

Iran’s two historical sites, including Isfahan’s Friday Mosque and Gonbad-e Qabus brick tower which is located in a namesake city in northwest Iran, were recently inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List at this year’s session held in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Isfahan’s Friday Mosque is also the oldest preserved edifice of its type in Iran and a prototype for later mosque designs throughout Central Asia.

Armenian monastic ensembles of Iran, Bam and its cultural landscape, Bisotoun, Naqsh-e Jahan Square, Pasargadae, Persepolis, Sheikh Safi al-din shrine, Shoushtar historical hydraulic system, Soltaniyeh, Tabriz historic bazaar complex, Takht-e Soleiman, Tchogha Zanbil and the Persian garden are the other Iranian historical heritage inscribed on UNESCO’
s World Heritage List.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/08/18/256959/iranian-church-may-enter-unesco-list/#.UC_kZd1lS50

E.V