14th–16th centuries the monastery became a major center of manuscript production. A number of Varagavank manuscripts are now kept at the Matenadaran repository in Yerevan. Cultural references Raffi mentions the monastery in volume two of the novel Sparks («Կայծեր», 1883–87). The prominent poet Hovhannes Tumanyan wrote an article about the monastery in 1910, on the fiftieth anniversary of Mkrtich Khrimian becoming father of Varag and the monastery's subsequent revival as a great center of education and culture. European visitors Austen Henry Layard (1853): "...the large Armenian convent of Yedi Klissia, or the seven churches, built of substantial stone masonry, and inclosing a spacious courtyard planted with trees. [...] The church, a substantial modern edifice, stand within the courtyard. Its walls are covered with pictyres as primitive in design as in execution." Henry Fanshawe Tozer (1881): "...the broken Varak Dagh formed a noble object on the further side of the plain. In one of the upper valleys of the last-named mountain lies an important monastery, which is the residence of the archbishop, and has a good school." H. F. B. Lynch (1893): "The monastery of Yed Kilisa, situated on the slopes of that mountain, is the most frequented of the numerous cloisters in the neighbourhood..." Gallery References Notes Bibliography External links Gallery at PanARMENIAN.Net by Sedrak Mkrtchyan The Monastery of Varagavank at Virtual Ani Gagik Arzumanyan's photo gallery Armenian Monastery of Varagavank at The Land of Crying Stones (Recent pictures of the ruins) Varak by Raffi Christian monasteries established in the 11th century History of Van Province Armenian churches in Turkey Churches destroyed by Muslims Demolished buildings and structures in Turkey Vaspurakan Aftermath of the Armenian genocide