Tekor Church

Church of Saint Sarkis, Tekor
Tekor Basilica in an engraving from the 1840s
Religion
Affiliation	Armenian Apostolic Church
Status	completely destroyed by local Turkish municipality
Location
Location	Digor, Turkey
Architecture
Style	Armenian
Groundbreaking	5th century
Completed	10th century

The Church of Saint Sarkis in Tekor (also known as the Tekor Basilica) was a 5th century Armenian church built in historical Armenia. It was located facing the town of Digor in the Kars Province of Turkey, about 16 kilometers west of the Armenian border. Tekor was a three aisled basilica with a dome. It has been almost entirely destroyed since the 19th century by earthquakes in 1912 and 1936. Now only the lower parts of the rubble and concrete core of the walls remain, the facing stone apparently removed to built the town hall (now itself demolished) in the 1960s. The inscription dating the building to the 480s was the oldest known writing in the Armenian language.

Architectural significance

The Basilica of Saint Sarkis is significant in Armenian architectural history because its stone dome was among the earliest to be constructed in Armenia. Until its destruction, Tekor was the oldest extant domed church in Armenia.

See also

• Yererouk, a contemporaneous 4th-5th century Armenian basilica about 18 kilometres northwest of Digor, in Armenia.

Bibliography

• Armen, Garbis (1992), An Architecture of Survival, ISBN 0-9695988-0-7