Christianity

Saint Sarkis Cathedral is an Armenian Apostolic church in Tehran, Iran.

The construction of St. Sarkis Church in Tehran began from 1964 and was complete by 1970. The church was built by Sarkisian brothers in memory of their parents.This cathedral is the largest church in Tehran with a length of 36.5 meters and a width of 17.8 meters. It is a single-nave church built out of concrete whose exterior and interior walls as well as the floor are covered with white marble.

At beginning the Tehran prelacy was located at conjunction of St. Mother Mary Church in central Tehran. In the early 1960s it was decided to change the site of the prelacy offices into new location. So therefore the bishop and committee members of the time requested to an Armenian benefactor Markar Sarkissian to help them in this cause. So the committee bought the land located at end of Villa Street (now called Nejatollahi Street). In 2006 Mr. Hrair Hagopian renovated the baptism pool and the church in memory of his beloved wife Vartoohi Davidian

Built between 1648 and 1655 with the encouragement of the Safavid rulers, Kelisa-ye Vank in the Armenian neighborhood of Jolfa is the historic focal point of the Armenian Church in Iran. The sumptuous interior is richly decorated with restored wall paintings full of life and colour, including gruesome martyrdoms and pantomime demons. The highlight of the museum (separate admission IR80,000) is a fabulous collection of illustrated gospels and Bibles, some dating back as far as the 10th century.

There is a memorial outside that commemorates the genocide of 1915.

The Vank Cathedral is a masterpiece of architecture. Construction of this cathedral started at the time of Shah Abbas the second. Vank Cathedral architecture is a combination of Iranian and Armenian architecture.

The cathedral invites you to see a unique collection of beautiful frescos: they depict stories from the holy Bible and Torah. Armenian artists painted them during Safavid era.

Beside that there are magnificent tile works with gold adornments.

A recent gift to the museum include a prayer written on a single hair that is visible only with the aid of a microscope and one of the world’s smallest prayer books.

The two-story museum on the northern part of the courtyard contains exhibits of some of the earliest books ever printed with one of the first printing devices in Middle east.