Vagharshapat / Etchmiadzin
The Oldest Cathedral
Portrait
Armenia adopted Christianity as a state religion in 301, before Rome, and Etchmiadzin cathedral was founded in 303 on a site Gregory the Illuminator saw in a vision — the name means where the only-begotten descended. It remains the seat of the Catholicos, and the treasury claims a fragment of Noah's Ark and the spear said to have pierced Christ's side.
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