Mokhrenis — Monument of Early-Christian Architecture of Artsakh: Bases of the Formation of the Local School

The article reveals the peculiarities of a single monument of Armenian Early Christian architecture of the historical province of Artsakh, a part of the kingdom of Great Armenia, since the late fifth century — the Sassanid Marzpanate of Albania, and since the ninth–tenth centuries — of the Armenian kingdom of Khachen. This is a ruined church of the monastery of Okhta Drni, near the village of Mokhrenis (Mokhrenes), the Hadrut District of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. This research develops the earlier formulated author's idea that the composition of this church of the type of tetraconch with corner niche was a result of simplification of a variant of the same type with four additional corner cameras which could be traced back to the samples of the central province of Armenia of the late sixth – early seventh centuries. Focal point of the article is at the stylistic peculiarities of architecture. Specific features of exedras – rounded in their exterior, and underdome pillars were connected with the provincial method of building of roughly cut stones. To find a place of this church in the medieval architecture of the Transcaucasian lands, the author offers some compositional analogues and describes the specifics of masters' work in Mokhrenis. The dating of the monuments to the last quarter of the seventh or early eighth century can be based on the analysis of the stone cutting of the imposts. As a conclusion, there is a characteristic of provincial architectural creativity in Artsakh, and the role of the church of Mokhrenis in that