is a venue for annual festivals honouring St. George. The church and the Lachin District were returned to Azerbaijan on 1 December 2020 as part of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement. Architecture The church has no early building inscriptions; however, based on its appearance, it is believed to have been constructed in three main stages. Its earliest form appears to have been a simple rectangular basilica, without an apse. Based on the style of the doorways in its south wall, this building period has been dated to the 5th or 6th century AD. However, an alternative thesis exists that dates this stage to the 3rd century AD, and suggests that it was a pre-Christian temple. During the second stage of construction, a windowless apse was added (constructed inside the eastern end of the rectangular interior) and the upper parts of the outside walls were built. This may have happened in the 6th century. At this period, the arcades that separated the interior nave from its aisles were probably still constructed of timber. In the third period of construction, stone pillars and arches replaced them. Based on the style of their capitals, this occurred sometime between the end of the 6th century and the beginning of the 10th century. The monastery is recognized as a native Armenian example of an "oriental" basilica. Being a three-nave basilica, like most of those in Armenia of 5-6th centuries; Tsitsernavank's central nave is only slightly taller than the lateral naves, from which it is separated by two rows of pillars. The plan is similar to a series of Armenian basilicas like Yereruyk, Yeghvard, Dvin, Ashtarak (Tsiranavor), Tekor - in that it had an interior composed of three aisles or naves, the central and largest one of which was separated from the others by pillars which also helped support the roof. The church has an inscription dating back before the 10th century that reads "Remember the prayers of your servant, the undeserving Grigor, for his beloved brother Azat." Gallery See also Armenian culture Armenian architecture Architecture of Azerbaijan References External links Some photographs of Tsitsernavank at RAA official site Dzidzernavank , Adriano Alpago Novello, ARCHITETTURA ARMENA - Catalogo della MOSTRA DI ARCHITETTURA ARMENA tenuta a Bergamo, presso il Palazzo della Ragione, 1975 - Torino 1700 years of Christian Armenia / Tsitsernavank (in Russian) A Brief History of the Art and Architecture of Artsakh — Nagorno Karabakh,